Design of a cylindrical geometry evaporator for the cold production of an adsorption solar cooler

Abstract

The objective of this work was to propose the design of an evaporator, to be used in an adsorption solar refrigeration system, which works by using the phenomenon of methanol adsorption on activated carbon. Since the cold generation process in adsorption refrigeration systems is not continuous, an evaporator must be designed to produce the maximum amount of ice possible without reaching very low temperatures inside the evaporator. Obtaining the temperatures at the evaporator outlet and the areas on which they depend are the basis of this study. For different diameters of the cylindrical evaporator and different thicknesses of the ice layer, the convective heat transfer coefficients, the thermal resistance on the evaporator walls and the methanol temperatures inside the evaporator were evaluated. The most suitable evaporator dimensions were chosen according to the thermal analysis performed.