Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol.40, No.11, 879-895, 2019
Numerical and experimental analysis of falling-film exchangers used in a LiBr-H2O interseasonal heat storage system
This paper investigates heat and mass transfer occurring in an interseasonal absorption heat storage system using LiBr/H2O as the sorption couple. It focuses on the poor performances of the falling film exchangers with vertical tubes, which are characterized by low flow rate compared to conventional absorption machines. A numerical model was developed for the study and validated with specific experimental results. Comparison of the numerical model to experimental results from the heat storage prototype shows the presence of abnormally high thermal resistance between the falling films and the exchanger surfaces. The deterioration in performance appears to originate in the low wetting rate of the surfaces. A new design of the exchangers is proposed to solve this problem and thus attain the desired performance.