Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

A mathematical model for predicting the performance of a compound

desiccant wheel (A model of compound desiccant wheel)
T.S. Ge a,*, F. Ziegler b, R.Z. Wang a
a
b

Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Institute of Energy Engineering, Technical University Berlin, D-10587 Berlin, Germany

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 18 May 2009
Accepted 10 January 2010
Available online 15 January 2010
Keywords:
Compound desiccant wheel
Modeling
Performance
Rotation speed
Desiccant cooling system
Simulation

a b s t r a c t
A mathematical model for predicting the performance of novel silica gel haloid compound desiccant
wheel is established. Both the gas side resistance and the solid side resistance are considered in the
model. It is found that the results of this model agree better to the experiments than the results of a former model which does not take the solid side resistance into account at all. Then the model is adopted to
analyze the effects of some main parameters on system performance. It is found that the compound desiccant wheel has a better performance in a climate with moderate temperature or in a climate with high
humidity ratio. Then under the basic conditions for the simulations (ambient air is of 35 C, 15 g/kg and
wheel thickness of 100 mm), an angle of the regeneration section between 100 and 160, a regeneration
temperature between 80 C and 95 C, a ow rate of process air between 2.0 m/s and 3.5 m/s and that of
regeneration air between 2.5 m/s and 3.5 m/s are recommended. Also, there exists an optimal rotation
speed to achieve the maximal moisture removal, which is about 12 r/h. At last, the inuences of the main
parameters on optimal rotation speed are discussed.
Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The desiccant wheel is the key component in a solid desiccant
cooling system. Its performance is crucial to the capacity, size
and cost of the rotary desiccant cooling system. The desiccant
wheel is also known as dehumidication wheel, wheel dehumidier or rotary dehumidier in the literature. Normally, a desiccant
wheel consists of a large number of air ow passages whose walls
are constituted by matrix material (supporting material) and are
coated or impregnated with desiccant material (adsorbent). Its
cross-section is divided into two parts by the external ow sections
which are adhering to the wheel: one for process air and another
for regeneration air. Water vapor is adsorbed by the adsorbent
when moist air is passing through the process air side. Meanwhile
in the regeneration side, the water vapor is desorbed from the desiccant by the hot regeneration air. A motor is usually adopted to
drive the wheel rotating between process air side and regeneration
air side so that the desiccant wheel can operate continuously.
Several investigations have been performed to build mathematical models for predicting the performance of rotary desiccant
wheels. One-dimensional desiccant wheel models have been
established by Charoensupaya and Worek [1], Zheng et al. [25]
and Zhang et al. [6,7]. It was reported that the desiccant cooling
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 21 34206073.
E-mail address: baby_wo@sjtu.edu.cn (T.S. Ge).

system operating in the ventilation mode can yield a thermal

COP as high as 1.4 [1] (the thermal COP is dened by the ratio between cooling power provided by the desiccant cooling system and
the thermal energy input in regeneration heater). Mihajlo and
William [8] have derived a model to analyze the performance of
an adiabatic desiccant wheel under high process and regeneration
air stream pressures. These models do not consider the solid side
resistance (heat conduction and mass diffusion within solid side)
and can not reect the actual transfer process occurring in the desiccant wheel. They are termed as gas side resistance models.
With the increasing knowledge of the diffusion mechanism inside
the desiccant material, gas and solid side resistance models
which take both gas side and solid side resistance into account
are developed by many researchers [913]. It can be learned that
compared with gas side resistance models, gas and solid side resistance models are more related to the actual process in the desiccant wheel. The precisions of these models are thus greatly
improved.
Compared with the traditional solid desiccant materials such as
silica gel, the haloids including lithium chloride and calcium chloride have a higher hygroscopic capacity, but the lyolysis phenomenon often takes place after the formation of a solid crystalline
hydrate, which leads to the loss of desiccant material and reduces
the dehumidication performance [14]. Therefore, developing
composite adsorbents is an attractive research subject. Aristov
[1517] tested the dynamic adsorption performance of some

1359-4311/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2010.01.012

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

Nomenclature
A
C
cp
D
DCOP
DG
DK
DO
DS
f
h
k
Ky
L
M
m
Nu
P
qst
R
r
RH
Sh
T
t
u
V
W

cross-sectional area of one channel (m2)

perimeter of air ow passage (m)
constant pressure specic heat (kJ/kg K)
moisture removal (kg/kg)
dehumidication coefcient of performance
gas phase diffusivity including ordinary and Knudsen
diffusivity (m2/s)
Knudsen diffusivity (m2/s)
ordinary diffusivity/molecular diffusivity (m2/s)
surface diffusivity (m2/s)
the area ratio of air ow passage to the whole channel
enthalpy (kJ/kg)
thermal conductivity (W/m K)
coefcient of mass convection (kg/m2 s)
wheel thickness (m)
mass ow rate of the air (kg/s)
molecular weight of water (kg/mol)
Nusselt number
pressure (Pa)
heat of sorption kJ/kg adsorbate
universal gas constant 8.3143 J/mol K
pore radius of the adsorbent (m)
relative humidity ratio (%)
Sherwood number
temperature (K)
time
velocity (m/s)
latent heat of condensation (water vapor) (kJ/kg)
extent of adsorption kg adsorbate/kg adsorbent

composite adsorbents fabricated by inorganic salt (CaCl2, LiBr) and

silica gel. Jia et al. [14,18,19] developed a novel composite desiccant material based on silica gel and lithium chloride and fabricated a honeycombed rotary wheel with this new kind of
composite desiccant material. Lithium chloride is distributed in
the porous silica gel with open pores, the old pores in silica gel
are blocked and lots of new smaller pores are formed. By providing
an appropriate proportion of porous host matrix (silica gel) and
lithium chloride, the composite desiccant material takes an intermediate position between solid adsorbent and pure hygroscopic
salt and overcomes the lyolysis phenomenon of pure lithium chloride. Also, results showed that the compound desiccant wheel can
work well under a lower regeneration temperature and have a
higher dehumidication capacity as compared with a silica gel
wheel. Therefore, it is expected to have a signicant potential to
be applied in solar driven desiccant cooling systems.
A gas side resistance model for calculating the performance of a
honeycombed desiccant wheel has been established by Zhang et al.
[6,7] and adopted by Jia et al. [18] to predict the performance of a
compound desiccant wheel. It was reported that the discrepancy
between the experimental results and simulated data is about
1520%. Due to neglecting of the solid side resistance, the precision
of the model is not very high.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a gas and solid side resistance model which can better predict the performance of this kind
of compound desiccant wheel and analyze the effect of some
important structural and operating parameters. The gas and solid
side resistance model takes into account heat and mass transfer
from the desiccant to the air stream; however, no detailed modeling of the diffusion and adsorption processes inside the desiccant
are being performed. These details are lumped into the mass and
heat transfer coefcients. This way of modeling is deemed to be
satisfactory because the desiccant layer is rather thin. By using

Y
z

absolute humidity ratio of the air kg water vapor/kg dry

air
axial direction

Greek symbols
q
density (kg/m3)
a
convective heat transfer coefcient (kW/m2K)
d
thickness of matrix and desiccant material layer (m)
e
porosity
g
relative moisture removal efciency
h
central angle ()
U
volume ratio of desiccant material in layer (without desiccant U = 0)
u
volume ratio of haloids in composite desiccant (for silica
gel u = 0)
x
rotation speed (r/h)
Subscripts
0
initial state
a
air
d
desiccant
h
haloids desiccant (lithium chloride)
l
liquid water
m
matrix
p
process air
r
regeneration air
sg
silica gel desiccant
v
water vapor

the model, in another paper a performance comparison between

a solar driven rotary desiccant cooling system using the compound
desiccant wheel and a conventional vapor compression system will
be conducted and discussed.
2. Mathematical model
2.1. Governing equation
The schematic gure of desiccant wheel and control volume
adopted in the model are shown in Fig. 1. One honeycombed channel with a length of dz is selected as the differential control volume. It should be noted that one matrix and desiccant material
layer is shared by two channels, therefore the thickness of the layer
in one control volume is d/2 as shown in Fig. 1. The middle of the
layer is considered to be an adiabatic wall due to the symmetry. A
represents the cross-sectional area of one channel which includes
one air ow passage and the adiabatic wall of thickness d/2, and
C is perimeter of the air ow passage.
The numerical analysis is based on the following assumptions:
(1) The temperature and moisture content gradients in circumferential and radial direction are negligible.
(2) Heat conduction in humid air is negligible.
(3) The heat and mass transfer coefcients between the air
stream and the desiccant wall are constant over the entire
dehumidier.
(4) All honeycombed channels that make up the rotary desiccant wheel are identical.
(5) Matrix material and desiccant material are evenly distributed in the layer.
(6) The hygroscopic capacity of matrix material is negligible as
compared to the adsorbent.

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

Regeneration air

dz
d

A, C
Process air

dr
One honeycombed

Adiabatic wall
i-1

/2

i+1

dz

/2

L
Matrix and desiccant
material layer

Air flow passage

Fig. 1. The corrugated air duct and the computation domain.

(7) The inlet air conditions are uniform in space, but may vary
with time.
(8) The thermophysical properties of the dry air and the properties of the dry desiccant material as well as of the matrix are
constant.
(9) The vapor enters the pores, diffuses in the pores, and meanwhile is adsorbed. The heat of adsorption is set free in the
desiccant layer immediately when water vapor enters the
porous layer.
(10) The pressure loss of the air stream in axial direction is negligible. It is, of course, relevant to calculate the fan power,
but it is less relevant for discussion of the heat and mass
transfer processes.
(11) Based on the calculation and analysis of Jia [19], the adsorption heat of this composite silica gel is similar to that of silica
gel. Therefore the calculation equation of adsorption heat for
silica gel is adopted to evaluate the adsorption heat of the
composite desiccant materials to simplify the calculation
and analysis.
The control volume is separated into two parts, one is the humid air in the passage and the other is the desiccant layer. Four
governing equations including conservation of moisture and heat
in the air as well as in the desiccant material are established. The
moisture conservation in the air can be expressed as:



@Y a
@Y a
u
K y CY d  Y a
@t
@z

qa fA

The rst term on the left hand side of the above equation is the
moisture storage term in the air and the second one represents
the change of moisture content in a control volume (dz) with
cross-section fA. The term on the right hand side expresses the rate
of moisture variation in the air caused by the convective mass
transfer between air and desiccant.
Moisture conservation in desiccant is given by:

@Y d
@W
qd 1  e1  f AU
@t
@t
@2Y d
@2W
qa e1  f ADG
qd 1  e1  f ADS
K y CY a  Y d
2
@z2
@z
2

qa e1  f A

where e, U and f are the porosity, volume ratio of desiccant material in

layer, and area ratio of air ow passage to the whole channel respectively. The left hand side of the above equation includes the moisture
storage term inside desiccant pore and desiccant material. The rst
two terms on the right hand side show the mass diffusion in the pores
lled with air and vapor within the solid side and the surface diffusion in axial direction. The last term on the right hand side of Eq.
(2) represents the convective mass transfer between the air and desiccant. It is identical to the term on the right hand side of Eq. (1).
The energy change for the humid air is described as:

qa cpa Y a cpv fA

@T a
@T a
u
@t
@z

aCT d  T a K y cpv CY d  Y a T d  T a

The left hand side of the equation describes the energy storage and
the rate of energy variation in the air. The rst term on the right
hand side of Eq. (3) expresses the convective heat transfer between
the air and solid desiccant. The second term on the right hand side
indicates the sensible heat transfer between the air and solid desiccant, which is related to the convective transfer of moisture. Heat
conduction in the air is neglected.
The phase change of water is accounted for in the last term of
the next equation which describes the energy conservation in the
desiccant:

@T d
q cpd 1  f A
@t ! d
2
@T d
kd @ T d
 1  eU
aCT a  T d

@t
cpd qd @z2

qm cpm 1  f A1  e1  U

K y cpv CY a  Y d T a  T d K y CY a  Y d qst

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015


q 
D0 1:6  1010 m2 =s
Ds D0 exp 0:974  103 st
T

The left hand side of the equation describes the energy storage
terms of matrix, desiccant material and the heat conduction in desiccant material. The right hand side describes the convective heat
transfer between the air and solid desiccant, the sensible heat transfer between the air and solid desiccant and the heat of adsorption
released to the desiccant layer.

The subscript d means the wet desiccant which includes three

parts: dry silica gel desiccant, dry haloids desiccant and adsorbed
liquid water. qd, cpd and kd are calculated using the following
expressions:

2.2. Initial and boundary conditions

qd U1  e1 W1  uqsg uqh 

The initial temperature and humidity ratio of the air and of the
desiccant is assumed to be uniform:

cpd

8
T a z; 0 T a0
>
>
>
>
>
>
< T d z; 0 T d0
Wz; 0 W 0
>
>
>
Y a z; 0 Y a0
>
>
>
:
Y d z; 0 Y d0


Y a 0; t

14

U1  e1  uqsg cpsg uqh cph  W U1  e1  uqsg uqh cpl

qd
15

The temperature and humidity ratio boundary conditions for

the air are:

T a 0; t

13

Tr
Tp

for regeneration air

for process air

Yr

for regeneration air

Yp

for process air

Moreover, we assume adiabatic and impermeable boundaries at

the entrance and exit of each passage. This corresponds to neglecting the diffusive terms in axial direction against the convective
terms in the whole model. This results in:



@T d 
@T d 

0
@z z0
@z zL


@Y d 
@Y d 

0
@z z0
@z zL

8
9



W qd
kd U1  e 1  uksg ukh
kl

16

ql

where u is the volume ratio of haloids in composite desiccant. In

these equations (Eqs. (14)(16)), the inuence of mixing of desiccant material is presented by the parameters U, u and e.
The equilibrium isotherm of the composite desiccant at different temperature is obtained by Jia et al. [18,19] as shown in
Fig. 2. The relationship at each temperature is obtained by tting
19 data points. It can be seen that when temperature and relative
humidity are the same, the equilibrium adsorption mass of composite desiccant material is much higher than the conventional silica gel. Therefore, by adopting composite desiccant material, the
desiccant wheel could obtain better performance. The relationship
at 30 C is taken as an example:
W

C 1 k1  RH 2k2  RH2 3k3  RH3 5k4  RH5 

1 k1  RH k2  RH2 k3  RH3 k4  RH5
"
#
W e m  RH 1  n 1RHn n  RHn1

1  RH 1  m  1RH  m  RHn1

k1 0:02045; k2 0:02131; k3 0:02199; k4 2:00966; C 1 0:09678;

W e 0:28354; m 1:0234; n 2:77214
17

2.3. Auxiliary conditions

The heat of adsorption can be calculated by the obtained equilibrium adsorption equations [25]:

Yd

0:62188Pv
0:62188RHd

Patm  Pv
Patm =Pv s  RHd

10

where Pvs is the saturation pressure of water vapor which can be

determined by the following equation [21]:

Pv s exp23:196  3816:44=T d  46:13

11

According to the denition of International Union of Pure and

Applied Chemistry [22] (IUPAC), porous materials are classied
into three kinds by their pore size. Microporous material has pore
diameters of less than 2 nm, macroporous material has pore diameters of greater than 50 nm and the mesoporous category lies in
the middle. Jia [19] reported that the pore diameter of silica gel
haloids composite adsorbent is about 4 nm; therefore it belongs
to the mesoporous category. For the mesoporous material, both ordinary diffusion (molecular diffusion) and Knudsen diffusion exist
and cannot be neglected. DG means the composite gas diffusivity of
Knudsen and ordinary diffusion which can be calculated by [23]:


DG

1
1

DO DK

1
DO 1:735  10

1:685
9 T d

Pv

qst V1:0 0:2843e10:28w

18

in which V is the latent heat of water vapor at different temperature

[26].
In addition the following heat and mass transfer relations are
adopted [27]:

Nu Sh

19

0.8

Silica gel-haloid 25
Silica gel-haloid 30
0.6

Silica gel-haloid 40
Silica gel 25

W (kg/kg)

The relationship between humidity ratio and relative humidity

is described as [20]:

Silica gel 30
0.4

Silica gel 40

0.2

 0:5
Td
DK 97r
m
12

The surface diffusivity DS can be calculated by the following

equation which is obtained by tting the experimental data [24]:

0.0

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

RH
Fig. 2. Equilibrium adsorption curves of the composite desiccant and silica gel [18].

1009

T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

NukC
4A
ShDC
4A

D 2:302  105

p0 0:98  105 Pa; T 0 256 K

 1:81
p0 T
p T0
21

2.4. Solution method

A mixed numerical scheme is adopted to solve the governing
equations. The two governing equations on the desiccant side
(Eqs. (2) and (4)) are solved using a fully-implicit nite difference
scheme, and the other two equations on the gas side (Eqs. (1) and
(3)) are solved using a backward nite difference scheme. The two
pairs of equations are solved together. The time step and space step
size are 0.025 s and 0.004 m respectively. An object-oriented programming language, C++, on a personal computer is adopted to
solve the mathematical model.
3. Validation
Experimental results related to the compound desiccant wheel
(Ref. [19]) are adopted to validate the present model. Under a wide
range of operating conditions (air inlet temperature changes from
25 C to 35 C, air inlet humidity ratio changes from 5 g/kg to
20 g/kg, rotation speed varies between 4 r/h to 10 r/h, regeneration
temperature is constant at 80 C), the predicted results in terms of
temperature as well as humidity ratio of outlet air agree well with
the experimental data as shown in Fig. 3. The discrepancy between
the two results is less than 9%. Compared with the results of the gas
side resistance model where the discrepancy between the experimental results and simulated data is about 1520% [18], this is a
large improvement.
4. Results and discussion
The structural and operating parameters of the desiccant wheel
vary a lot with different climate condition and application areas. In
order to better understand these dependencies, the established
model is used to investigate the inuences of the main parameters
on system performance.
4.1. Performance indices
The main function of a desiccant wheel is to remove the water
vapor from the process air. Therefore, the rst group of performance indices represents the dehumidication capacity of the desiccant wheel. Moisture removal D is adopted as an index to
represent the absolute dehumidication capacity of desiccant
wheel:

D Y p;in  Y p;out

D
Y p;in  Y p;out

Y p;in
Y p;in

+9%
15

-9%

10

0
0

10

15

20

Experimental value of air outlet humidity ratio (g/kg)

50

+8%
40

-8%

30

20

10

0
0

10

20

30

40

50

Experimental value of air outlet temperature (C)

Fig. 3. Comparison between the simulated and experimental results.

energy utilization performance at the same time, is also adopted. It

is the ratio of the latent heat which is contained in the adsorbed
moisture and the effort to produce the high inlet temperature in
the regeneration air:

DCOP

Mp VD
Mp VY p;in  Y p;out

M r hr;in  hambient Mr hr;in  hambient

24

A higher DCOP indicates a better system performance because the

energy input to the regeneration air is utilized in a better way or
less heat is being used to heat up the desiccant wheel.
The constant thermodynamic properties and geometrical
parameters of the compound desiccant wheel used in the simulation process are listed in Table 1. The data are obtained from experimental results of a ceramic honeycombed silica gel haloids
compound desiccant wheel [18,19].

22

where Yp,in and Yp,out are the humidity ratio of process air at inlet
and at outlet respectively.
Relative moisture removal efciency g is also adopted:

Simulated results of
air outlet humidity ratio (g/kg)

K y qa

20

20

Simulated results of
air outlet temperature (C)

23

g shows the ratio of moisture removal to inlet humidity ratio of process air. Its value is between 0 and 1. For constant inlet humidity ratio of process air, g increases with the increasing of moisture
removal D.
Besides, another index, the dehumidication coefcient of performance (DCOP), which reects the dehumidication capacity and

4.2. Effect of structural and operating parameters on system

performance
The structural and operating data adopted in the analysis are
listed in Table 2. One parameter is changed at a time to investigate its effect while all other parameters are xed at the baseline
as shown in the table. For a given ow velocity of process/regeneration air, the diameter of the wheel and the sectional angle of
the respective ow passage together determine the respective
mass ow rate. There is no pressure loss calculation. The thickness of the wheel has been set to 100 mm and has not been
varied.

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

Table 1
Thermodynamic properties and geometrical parameters [18,19].
Specication of desiccant material
Specic heat of silica gel, cpsg (J/kg K)
Thermal conduction of silica gel, ksg (W/m K)
Density of silica gel, qsg (kg/m3)
Specic heat of matrix material, cpm (J/kg K)
Volume ratio of desiccant, U (%)
Pore diameter of compound adsorbent (nm)
Porosity, e

921
0.175
1201
880
48
4.0
0.4

Specic heat of LiCl cph (J/kg K)

Thermal conduction of LiCl, kh (W/m K)
Density of LiCl, qh (kg/m3)
Density of matrix material, qm (kg/m3)
Volume ratio of LiCl, u (%)
Pore surface area (m2/g)

3000
0.65
1200
625
15
194

Construct parameter of desiccant wheel

Height of the ow passage, a (cm)
Area of cross-section, A (m2)
Perimeter of air ow passage, C (m)
Thickness of wheel, L (m)

0.002
4.9e6
7.1e3
0.1

Width of the ow passage, b (m)

Ratio of air ow passage, f (%)
Thickness of the wall, d (m)
Diameter of the wheel, D (m)

0.002
81.6
0.00045
0.4

Table 2
Structural and operating parameters.
Parameters

Baseline
values

Parametric
variations

Rotation speed
Angel of regeneration air side
Temperature of ambient air, Tambient
Humidity ratio of ambient air, dambient
Inlet temperature of process air, Tp,in
Inlet humidity ratio of process, air dp,in
Flow rate of process air
Regeneration temperature, Tr,in
Inlet humidity ratio of regeneration air, dr,in
Flow rate of regeneration air

16 r/h
120
35.0 C
15.0 g/kg
35.0 C
15.0 g/kg
2.5 m/s
90.0 C
15.0 g/kg
2.5 m/s

440 r/h
60180

2540 C
10.025.0 g/kg
1.55.5 m/s
60110 C
10.025.0 g/kg
1.55.5 m/s

climate with lower temperature. This is mainly because the desiccant material is cooled to lower temperature at lower Ta,in, and
thus can adsorb more water vapor. The ux of process air and
regeneration heat needed by regeneration air keep constant
under this condition; therefore DCOP has the same trend as D
and g.
(c and d) Both moisture removal D and DCOP increases signicantly with the increasing of Ya,in. With other parameters
xed, higher Ya,in leads to better mass transfer and then the
moisture removal capacity is enhanced. As explained before,
DCOP has the same trend as D. Consequently, the desiccant
wheel can obtain a better absolute dehumidication capacity
and high DCOP with higher Ya,in. However, g decreases from

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

4.2.2. Effect of condition of process air

Fig. 5 shows the inuences of process air such as its inlet temperature Ta,in, inlet humidity ratio Ya,in and ow rate ua. It is found
that:

0.2

(a and b) D and g decrease about 2 g/kg and 0.1 when Ta,in

changes between 20 C and 40 C. Therefore, the compound
desiccant wheel has better dehumidication capacity under a

Moisture removal (g/kg)

(a) 10

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

0.2

Relative moisture removal efficiency

4.2.1. Effect of central angle of regeneration section hr

The system performance in terms of moisture removal D, relative moisture removal efciency g and DCOP with respect to the
central angle of the regeneration section hr is shown in Fig. 4. For
the ow velocity is xed, the mass ow rate of regeneration air
increases with the increasing of hr, whereas the ux of process
air decreases. This means that more regeneration air is adopted
to remove the moisture of less process air. When D approximates
the maximum value, the outlet relative humidity ratio of process
air (61.8 C, 6.5 g/kg, 4.3%) is close to the inlet relative humidity
ratio of regeneration air (90 C, 15 g/kg, 3.9%), therefore with further increase of hr, D almost keeps constant.
Besides, it is found that there is an optimal value for hr at which
DCOP is maximum. If hr is very small the desiccant is not regenerated well and consequently the moisture removal is poor although
the ow of process air is high. With the increasing of hr, the ux of
process air which provides the cooling power decreases but the
regeneration becomes more effective. However, at the same time
the thermal energy needed to heat the regeneration air increases,
and when hr is bigger than 100, this negative effects on DCOP compensates the positive effect of moisture removal, and then DCOP
decreases. For large angles hr the wheel is well desorbed but the
ow of process air is small and consequently the cooling power
again is low. To take a tradeoff between moisture removal and
DCOP, hr between 100 and 160 is recommended under the simulated condition.

0.0
60

90

120

150

180

210

240

270

300

Angle of regeneration section ()

(b)1.0

DCOP

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.0
60

90

120

150

180

210

240

270

300

Angle of regeneration section ()

Fig. 4. Effect of the angle of regeneration section on (a) dehumidication capacity
and (b) DCOP.

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

0
20

25

30

35

(d)1.0
0.8

DCOP

Moisture removal (g/kg)

1.0

Relative moisture removal efficiency

(a) 10

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

40

Inlet temperature of process air (C)

20

25

30

(e) 10
Moisture removal (g/kg)

0.8

DCOP

15

0.6

0.4

0.2

1.0

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
20

25

30

35

40

0.0
1

Inlet temperature of process air (C)

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
10

15

20

25

30

Inlet humidity ratio of process air (g/kg)

(f) 1.0
0.8

DCOP

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

Relative moisture removal efficiency

1.0

Flow rate of process air (m/s)

(c) 10
8

Relative moisture removal efficiency

(b) 1.0

Moisture removal (g/kg)

10

Inlet humidity ratio of process air (g/kg)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
1

Flow rate of process air (m/s)

Fig. 5. Effect of temperature of process air on (a) dehumidication capacity (b) DCOP; effect of humidity ratio of process air on (c) dehumidication capacity (d) DCOP; effect
of ow rate of process air on (e) dehumidication capacity and (f) DCOP.

0.4 to 0.3 when Ya,in increases from 10 g/kg to 25 g/kg, which

means the increasing of absolute moisture removal is not as signicant as the increasing of Ya,in under the simulated condition.
(e and f) There is a 50% increase of DCOP when ua increases
from 1.5 m/s to 5.5 m/s. On the contrary, moisture removal D
and g decrease to about half under the same condition. The process air ux increases with the increasing of ua. For all other
conditions being equal, the adsorption capacity of the desiccant
material keeps constant, therefore the moisture removal capacity per unit mass of process air, D, decreases. However, the total
moisture removal rate, which is dened by multiplying the ow
rate of process air and moisture removal, increases as shown in

Table 3, and thus more latent heat is handled by the desiccant

wheel. On the other hand the thermal energy needed by regeneration air is xed, and then DCOP increases. A ow rate of process air between 2 m/s and 3.5 m/s is recommended under the
simulated condition. In practical application, ua should be
selected carefully to trade between dehumidication performance and DCOP.

4.2.3. Effect of condition of regeneration air

The impact of the condition of the regeneration air (Tr,in, Yr,in, ur)
is simulated and plotted in Fig. 6. It can be seen that:

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

the regeneration temperature Tr,in is about 85 C. This is mainly

because when Tr,in is higher than 85 C, the increasing of energy
needed to produce the high inlet temperature of regeneration
air is more signicant than the increasing of moisture removal.
(c and d) Moisture removal D and g decreases about 25%
and DCOP decreases about 50% when Yr,in increases from 10 g/
kg to 25 g/kg. When the other parameters are kept constant
the absolute moisture difference decreases signicantly with
increasing Yr,in, which results in reduced D and g. The decrease
of DCOP can be attributed to this fact.
(e and f) There is a remarkable about twofold increase for D
as well as g with the velocity ur increasing from 1.5 m/s to
3.5 m/s. When ur changes further from 3.5 m/s to 5.50 m/s,

Table 3
Total moisture removal rate with respect to different velocity of process air.
Velocity of process air (m/s)

Total moisture removal rate (kg/s)

1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5

1.85
2.41
2.66
2.78
2.88

(a and b) D and g show the expected behavior: they

increase strongly with increasing Tr,in due to the desiccant being
better regenerated. DCOP obtains a at maximum value when

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
50

60

70

80

90

100

110

(d)1.0
0.8

DCOP

Moisture removal (g/kg)

1.0

Relative moisture removal efficiency

(a) 10

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

120

10

25

(e) 10
Moisture removal (g/kg)

0.8

DCOP

20

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

1.0

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
50

60

70

80

90

100

110

0.0
1

120

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
15

20

25

Inlet humidity ratio of regeneration air (g/kg)

(f) 1.0
0.8

DCOP

1.0

Relative moisture removal efficiency

(c) 10

10

Flow rate of regeneration air (m/s)

Regeneration temperature (C)

Relative moisture removal efficiency

(b)1.0

Moisture removal (g/kg)

15

Inlet humidity ratio of regeneration air (g/kg)

Regeneration temperature (C)

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
1

Flow rate of regeneration air (m/s)

Fig. 6. Effect of temperature of regeneration air on (a) dehumidication capacity (b) DCOP; effect of humidity ratio of regeneration air on (c) dehumidication capacity (d)
DCOP; effect of ow rate of regeneration air on (e) dehumidication capacity and (f) DCOP.

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

the increase of moisture removal is not signicant. At high ow

rate of the regeneration air the adsorbed moisture is almost in
equilibrium with the regeneration air. Therefore with the further increasing of air ow rate, D does not change a lot. DCOP
achieves an optimal value when ur is about 2.5 m/s. At higher
velocities, on the one hand, the increasing of energy needed
to heat the regeneration air increases greatly; on the other
hand, again the wheel is heated without signicant additional
adsorption capacity due to reaching the equilibrium. A ow
velocity of regeneration air between 2.5 m/s and 3.5 m/s is recommended under the simulated condition.

4.2.4. Effect of rotation speed

The rotation speed of the desiccant wheel is widely recognized
as a crucial parameter ([28,29]). The performance of the compound
desiccant wheel has been simulated by varying the rotation
speed x from 4 r/h to 40 r/h. Results are illustrated in Fig. 7. It
can be found that there exists an optimal rotation speed xopt which
is about 12 r/h to obtain maximum moisture removal. If the wheel
rotates too fast, the desiccant material in the process air side does
not have enough time to remove the moisture. Similarly on the
regeneration side, the moisture adsorbed in the desiccant material
cannot be desorbed completely. On the other hand, equilibrium is
reached and the saturated desiccant material is still in the process
section if the wheel rotates too slowly. As a result, there must be an
optimal rotation speed under different conditions to have the best
dehumidication capacity. Under the condition of different rotation speed, DCOP is determined by D only and then it has the same
trend as D.

Moisture removal (g/kg)

1.0

Moisture removal
Relative moisture removal efficiency

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

0
10

20

30

Relative moisture removal efficiency

(a) 10

40

In the following chapter, the optimal rotation speed xopt to obtain the biggest moisture removal with respect to different parameters is calculated and analyzed.
4.3. Analysis of optimal rotation speed
4.3.1. Effect of central angles of regeneration side
The effect of rotation speed on moisture removal D for different
central angles of the regeneration section is shown in Fig. 8. We
rst see the trend of rising D with increasing hr from Fig. 4a. In
addition, there always exist optimal rotation speeds to obtain the
biggest D, as expected. The value of xopt increases from 6 r/h to
20 r/h when hr increases from 60 to 180. The results show that
the desiccant wheel needs a larger angle of regeneration to complete the desorption process if it rotates faster.
4.3.2. Effect of conditions of process air
Fig. 9 presents the dehumidication rate in dependence of the
rotation speed x for different conditions of process air (Ta,in, Ya,in, ua,in,). We observe the basic trends from Fig. 5a, c, and e, but a
change in rotation speed allows to improving the effectiveness:
(a) xopt increases about 6 r/h when Ta,in changes from 20 C to
40 C. The extent of adsorption of the desiccant wheel is less
at a higher temperature as shown in Fig. 2. Therefore xopt
increases to lead the desiccant material away from the equilibrium state.
(b) xopt increases a little from 12 r/h to 16 r/h when Ya,in
increases from 10 g/kg to 25 g/kg. The mass transfer capacity
on the process side is improved with higher Ya,in, which
means that the velocity of adsorption increases. Then the
time for achieving adsorption equilibrium state is shortened,
which results in higher xopt.
(c) The optimal rotation speed xopt increases from 12 r/h to
20 r/h when the ow rate of the process air ua,in varies
between 1.5 m/s and 5.5 m/s. The adsorption rate increases
with more process air, and thus the desiccant wheel needs
to rotate faster to let the process side of the wheel move into
the regeneration side in time.
4.3.3. Effect of conditions of regeneration air
Fig. 10 summarizes the impact of rotation speed on moisture removal with different conditions of regeneration air (Tr,in, Yr,in, ur).
The main results show the options to improve the results from
Fig. 6a, c, and d:

Rotation speed (r/h)

10

(b) 1.0

Angle of regeneration section

60

90

120

150

180

D (g/kg)

DCOP

0.8

0.6

0.4
2
0.2
0
4

0.0
10

20

30

40

12

20

28

36

Rotation speed (r/h)

Rotation speed (r/h)

Fig. 7. Effect of rotation speed on (a) dehumidication capacity and (b) DCOP.

Fig. 8. D at different rotation speed with angle of regeneration section as

parameter.

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T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

(a) the optimal rotation speed xopt is higher at higher Tr,in. It

increases from 6 r/h to 16 r/h when Tr,in changes from
60 C to 110 C. With higher Tr,in, the moisture adsorbed in
the desiccant is much easier to be desorbed, therefore the
rotation speed should be increased to make the well desorbed desiccant rotate out of the regeneration section in
time.
(b) xopt decreases with the increasing of Yr,in. The desorption
capacity decreases with the increasing of Yr,in, therefore
lower rotation speed is needed to force the desiccant material and regeneration air to have enough contact time to
complete the desorption process.

(c) xopt increases from 8 r/h to 24 r/h with ur varying from

1.5 m/s to 5.5 m/s. This is mainly because the desorption
rate increases with more regeneration air, and then xopt
increases to make the regeneration side go to the process
air side in time.
5. Conclusions
A gas and solid side resistance model for predicting the performance of a honeycombed compound desiccant wheel is built and
validated. It agrees better with the experimental results than the
former gas side resistance model. Then the model is adopted to

Process air inlet temperature (C)

20
25
30
35
40

Moisture removal (g/kg)

(a) 10

D (g/kg)

(a) 10

0
4

12

20

28

Regeneration temperature (C)

60
70
80
90
100
110

36

12

Rotation speed (r/h)

(b) 10
Process air inlet humidity ratio (g/kg)
10
15
20
25

36

Process air inlet humidity ratio (g/kg)

10
15
20
25

D (g/kg)

D (g/kg)

28

(b) 10

0
4

12

20

28

36

12

Rotation speed (r/h)

20

28

36

Rotation speed (r/h)

(c) 10

(c) 10
Flow rate of process air (m/s)
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5

Flow rate of regeneration air (m/s)

1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5

D (g/kg)

D (g/kg)

20

Rotation speed (r/h)

0
4

12

20

28

36

Rotation speed (r/h)

Fig. 9. D at different rotation speed with (a) temperature, (b) humidity ratio, and (c)
ow rate of process air as parameter.

12

20

28

36

Rotation speed (r/h)

Fig. 10. D at different rotation speed with (a) temperature, (b) humidity ratio, and
(c) ow rate of regeneration air as parameter.

T.S. Ge et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 10051015

investigate the inuences of the main parameters on system performance and optimal rotation speed. In conclusion, the main results from this paper are summarized below:
(1) There exists an optimal central angle of regeneration section hr
at which the dehumidication coefcient of performance
(DCOP) is maximum. On the other hand, both the absolute
moisture removal D and relative moisture removal capacity g
increases with the increasing of hr. Therefore, hr between
100 and 160 is recommended under the simulated condition.
(2) The compound desiccant wheel performs well in a climate
with moderate temperature. At higher humidity ratio, the
compound desiccant wheel can obtain higher moisture
removal D and higher DCOP, but lower relative moisture
removal capacity g. To make a tradeoff between D and DCOP,
velocity of process air between 2.0 m/s and 3.5 m/s is
recommended.
(3) The effect of the regeneration temperature is similar to that
of hr and a value in the range of 8095 C is recommended. A
velocity of regeneration air between 2.5 m/s and 3.5 m/s is
preferable for a wheel with a thickness of 100 mm.
(4) An optimal rotation speed exists to obtain the biggest moisture removal D. Under the baseline condition as shown in
Table 2, the value is about 12 r/h. This optimal value
increases with the increasing of hr, Ta,in, Ya,in, ur,in, Tr,in and
ur,in, but decreases if Yr,in increases.
In a following paper, the model will be adopted to predict the
performance of a solar driven two-stage desiccant cooling system.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the support from Chinese Scholarship
Council in the form of an investigation fellowship and the support
from Chinese 863 Program (No. 2008AA05Z420).
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