Performance Evaluation of a Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger in Desiccant Regeneration System

In this paper, a simple and accurate dynamic model of the heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) in desiccant regeneration system is proposed based on the energy conservation law. The heat transfer rate between two air streams with different temperature in HPHE is derived through the effectiveness-NTU modeling and hybrid modeling approach. According to the hybrid modeling approach, the fluids thermodynamic coefficients and complex geometric terms are lumped into three model parameters. The model parameters are identified by using unscented Kalman filter algorithm with the commissioning information. The model predictions are compared with the experimental data. The results indicate that the maximum relative error between them is less than 10%, the validity and accuracy of the proposed models are verified. This model will have wide applications in real-time control and optimization.