Abstract:
In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed using COMSOL Multi-physics 6.0 to investigate the cooling efficiency of evaporative cooler pads made from activated bamboo bio-char composite sisal fibers with coated layer thickness of 1 cm for each. The CFD simulation model incorporated initial parameters and boundary conditions for study site data of Bahir Dar climate conditions of ambient average temperature at 28°C, ambient average relative humidity at 58% and characterize materialof bio-charwith thermal conductivity of 0.0684W/m. K, carbon contents of 87.87% and porosity 0.897 with pad fluent angles of 450. The CFD results revealed that the internal (outdoor) temperature of the cold storage was successfully maintained at 20.03°C and relative humidity 96%. The cooling performance of the evaporative cooler pads demonstrated a significant temperature drop of 7.97°C that achieving a saturation cooling efficiency of 97.55% and cooling capacity was 𝑄𝑐=9.81 KW. Finally the bio-char coated cooling pads was test in the same environmental climate conditions for ambient temperature of 28℃ and average ambient RH of 58% . The experimental results was drop temperature 28℃ to 21.3℃ , increase the relative humidity from 58% to 94%,cooling performance was 83.09% and cooling capacity was 𝑄𝑐=8.24 KW. This analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of using bamboo bio-char activated sisal fiber pads in evaporative cooling systems for agricultural cold storage applications that providing a sustainable and efficient solution for temperature and humidity control to preserves fruits and vegetables for a long period of times.
Key words: - Bio-char, cooling pad, temperature drop, fluent pads, grid pattern, cold storages