Heat and mass transfer in partially blocked Membrane Based Heat Exchanger

Membrane Based Heat Exchangers or total heat exchangers are a new technologies to recovery both heat and moisture quantities from hot humid to cold dry air streams. The traditional design of these technologies is the parallel plate membrane based heat exchanger. In this paper, a novel geometric design of the membrane based heat exchanger is proposed. A metal blocks along the channels are inserted, in which their effects on the temperature and humidity ratio distributions are investigated. A two-dimensional numerical model including the momentum, heat and mass transport equations in both fresh and exhaust air streams are established. Therefore, this study provides a solution to improve the heat and mass transfer mechanisms and enhance the membrane based heat exchanger efficiency.