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Experimental testing of a passive, evaporation-


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DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.11.009

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Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy and Buildings


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

Experimental testing of a passive, evaporation-based roof


cooling system
Robert Crawford, Alexandre K. da Silva
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, we study the capability of a roof based, passive, evaporative pumping system to lessen ther-
Received 4 April 2013 mal loadings imposed on the interior of a building thus reducing air conditioning energy consumption.
Received in revised form 11 October 2013 To do so, an instrumented experimental setup was constructed wherein a porous membrane rested on
Accepted 1 November 2013
top of an air cooled copper plate while heated by a halogen lamp from above. From the membrane, water
evaporated while drawing replenishment from a separated reservoir. The tests aimed to determine the
Keywords:
ability of such a system to lessen roof temperatures and heat uxes into the building compared to tradi-
Bio-inspired cooling
tional (e.g., dark ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM)) and non-traditional roofs (e.g., white). The
Building cooling
Evaporative pumping
results indicated that the evaporation system considered kept the plate temperature of the test section
Heat removal considerably lower than competing options, for a typical summer day in Austin, TX. Additionally, with
Porous membrane the use of reclaimed water in mind, the systems performance was evaluated under membrane fouling
conditions, which was shown to affect the evaporation rate of the porous membrane.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction While the results were generally positive, requirements such as the
need for inclined roofs, something not common in the commercial
Buildings are subjected to solar heat uxes, which are generally sector, the fact that water needs to be brought to the roof, which
considered low when compared with dissipations in other appli- could involve the use of a pump, and the potential for under and
cations. However, due to their footprint, they can receive large overwatering, still need to be addressed.
amounts of energy, which is transferred as heat to its structure. In an alternative study, Crawford et al. [10] have investigated the
To provide a suitable, interior-working environment, air condition- cooling capabilities of a membrane based system utilizing evapora-
ing is the preferred choice of cooling. Today, air conditioning loads tion where the water pumping was based on capillary forces. With
account for 14.5% of energy usage in the commercial building sec- direct heat ux applied to a wetted membrane, the system was
tor, representing 2.79 109 GJ (2.64 Quadrillion Btu) [1]. At energy able to signicantly lower the heater temperature. The operation
demands this high, even single digit percentage decreases equate of the system was sustained due to constant replenishment of the
to large savings on both the user energy cost side and infrastructure membrane to account for the evaporated losses. Additionally, the
capital cost side. work showed that replenishment could be effected even with the
Traditionally, roofs have been made from materials (asphalt, membrane above the uid reservoir, and estimates showed that
clay, tar, etc.) with moderate to high absorption coefcients. While water-columns over 3 m high could potentially be achieved. This
inexpensive and easy to install, much of the incoming solar radia- self-pumping ability suggested that such a system could move uid
tion is absorbed and transferred into the structure. Asphalt shingles, at least one oor of a building for membrane replenishment.
for example, have solar reectances in the range 0.050.2 and can However, in order to use membranes as described above, one
increase roof surface temperatures by 27 C [2]. To minimize the must keep in mind that these often offer effective means of species
amount of solar energy entering the structure, several studies have separation in areas of water treatment [11,12]. By their nature of
been performed analyzing the feasibility of evaporation systems on contaminant removal from a ow, membranes are subject to foul-
roofs [38]. Sethi and Sharma [9] provided a review of roof cool- ing, or the deposition of solutes or particles thus degrading the
ing systems where water was dispersed in a thin layer over a roof. performance of the membrane. Fouling can be thought of in two
ways, external and internal. External fouling occurs when particu-
lates that are too large to pass through the membrane gather on the
Corresponding author: Current address: Federal University of Santa Catarina, top surface, whereas internal fouling contends with the buildup of
Ararangua, SC, Brazil. Tel.: +1 512 232 0866. foreign particles within the porous structure of the membrane [13].
E-mail address: a.kupka@ufsc.br (A.K. da Silva). Consequently, the life of a membrane can be shortened by fouling

0378-7788/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.11.009
R. Crawford, A.K. da Silva / Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219 13

temperature of the room remained at 23.0 1.0 C and the humidity


at 45% 10%.
The membrane sat on a 9.1 cm diameter, 1.27 cm thick copper
disk plate a cut view of the test section, which includes all its main
components, is shown in Fig. 1b. Bolted to the bottom of the copper
disk was an acrylic disk with a milled evacuated space. The evacu-
ated space measured 0.635 cm deep and was in direct contact with
64% of the bottom surface area of the copper disk. This allowed for
air to ow underneath the copper to provide cooling. The air cool-
ing was provided through a regular compressed air line, which ran
through a desiccant, rotameter, and chilling bath for temperature
control, before reaching the test section. The ow meter allowed up
to 43,000 cm3 /min with a resolution of 287 cm3 /min. Through the
radial center of the copper and acrylic disks, and ush with the top
surface, a water line ran to the reservoir. Because this experiment
was not concerned with the initial wetting phenomenon, initial
wetting was provided by a second reservoir placed high above the
membrane. This reservoir was tied into the main water line.
The evaporative surface, which was placed on top of the copper
disk, was a hydrophilic polyvinylidene uoride (PVDF) Millipore
Durapore membrane lter with a porosity of 0.7, diameter of 9 cm,
and thickness of 135 m. The pore structure was of a random
nature with a manufacturer specied pore size of 0.65 m scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that the pore size
reached up to 3 m. This membrane was selected based on its
Fig. 1. (a) The evaporation system setup showing the major components. (b) A cross
section of the test section showing the membrane sitting on top of the copper plate
properties. The hydrophilicity of the membrane allowed for water
and acrylic disk with evacuated space. The water ow to and evaporation from the spreading within the structure. Additionally, a rigid pore structure
membrane can be seen along with the air path. was required as to prevent the solid phase from being carried by
the radial uid ow, which could possibly happen with a loose
brous material this occurrence was observed for brous non-
as it is based on the sustained ability to transmit uid across the
rigid membranes, which were exposed to evaporation tests of long
membrane with an acceptable pressure drop. As ow rate is a func-
duration, however, the results are not reported here. Furthermore,
tion of permeability according to Darcys law [14], as fouling occurs
the size, both the membranes diameter and thickness along with
on/in the membrane, permeability decreases causing a decrease in
the porosity, allowed for a time scale of induced degradation that
the ow rate.
was deemed sufcient by the authors as not too long for a trial and
Based on the above and building off previous investigations by
not too short where the behavior could not be captured.
our group, Crawford et al. [10], this study, analyzed and tested a self-
To simulate solar heating, a halogen lamp was placed 0.43 m
pumping, evaporation based, cooling system for its effectiveness of
above the membrane. Three criteria were required when selecting
lessening air conditioning loads. The experimental system simu-
a distance between the lamp and the test section. First, a relatively
lated a roof under various solar conditions, where, direct incoming
uniform heat ux had to be imposed on the test section by the
thermal energy, provided by a halogen lamp, reached a wet mem-
lamp. Uniformity was dened as 5% W/m2 of the average heat
brane, evaporating the water rather than heating the roof surface.
ux on the test section. Second, the range of heat uxes had to
Additionally, this study will discuss the effect of membrane degra-
produce noticeable experimental results. Third, the lamp had to be
dation on evaporation rate related to particulate buildup in the
far enough away as to not interrupt natural convection from the
evaporative membrane. Lastly, the performance of the system will
membrane surface. Beyond these criteria, the lamp distance was
be compared with other roof albedo congurations.
arbitrary. The lamp had three settings allowing for 250, 500, and
750 W. Because the actual heat ux reaching the test section was
2. Experimental system initially unknown, a precision spectral pyranometer was used to
create a 2D map characterizing the ux intensity that would be
2.1. Evaporative experimental setup imposed on the membrane at the selected vertical distance (i.e.,
0.43 m). Based on the lamps power and the 2D map, readings taken
The evaporation pumping system, Fig. 1a, was constructed of every 2.54 cm in the x and y directions of the plane, the exact loca-
a porous membrane connected to a water reservoir via Tygon tions within a horizontal plane below the lamp were determined
tubing (3.175 mm (1/8th in.) ID). The water reservoir rested on a that would provide uniform uxes on the test section the heat
high precision balance (range 0210 g, resolution 0.1 mg), which uxes imposed onto the test section were 130, 315, 434 5% W/m2 .
recorded mass loss automatically to a computer le. The reser- The disks side and bottom were well insulated to ensure all heat
voir was covered to prevent unwanted evaporation losses leaving ow that entered the copper disk went to the airstream.
only a pinhole in the lid to maintain atmospheric pressure. Because As shown later, the present study also compared the thermal
all mass loss from the reservoir was due to evaporation from the shielding performance of the evaporative (i.e., wet) membrane with
membrane, the balance was considered to be recording evapora- the dry membrane, which was used to simulate a white roof. There-
tion. Distilled water was used and, initially, the free surface of the fore, since the surface properties of the wet vs. dry membrane were
water in the main reservoir was no higher than the membrane. different, it was necessary to evaluate properties such as reectivity
The membrane sat exposed to room conditions but not in direct and absorptivity for both surfaces. The reectivity of the membrane
sunlight. Temperature and humidity of the room were not con- on copper, both wet and dry, was measured with a spectropho-
trolled specically, however, they were monitored using a traceable tometer. To the visible eye, when the membrane was dry, it was
Hygrometer/Thermometer. Over the course of all tests, the white opaque whereas when wet, the membrane was transparent.
14 R. Crawford, A.K. da Silva / Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219

When exposed to a halogen lamp with a spectrum between wave- membrane was then placed on the copper disk with its center on
lengths of 350 and 2500 nm, the reectance of the wet and dry the water feeding tube. The free surface of the main water supply
membranes was found to be 0.7 and 0.92, respectively. This mea- was brought to just beneath the height of the membrane, and the
surement was used to calculate the absorptivity of the wet and dry membrane was initially wetted with the high water reservoir. Fol-
membranes to be 0.3 and 0.08, respectively. Furthermore, it should lowing wetting, a three-way valve allowed for the water supply to
be noted that the solar irradiance spectrum of the sun is mimicked be switched to the main reservoir at which time, the evaporation
by a halogen light making a halogen lamp an appropriate choice of rate was recorded every minute. It should be noted, for each trial,
lightening for this experiment. a new membrane was used as to avoid propagation of any possi-
Using type T thermocouples, which had a calibrated uncertainty ble changes in the membrane toward later tests (e.g. dust particle
of 0.12 C at 95% condence, the midplane temperature of the cop- contamination).
per disk was measured in three locations at a radius of 2.5 cm, Over time, the temperature of the copper disk was monitored
(i.e. above the air inlet and outlet, and halfway along the air ow and the bath temperature was adjusted to meet the plate tempera-
path). This was done by carefully drilling tiny holes (small enough ture criteria, for the tests where the temperature was intentionally
to pass the thermocouple through) on the side surface of the cop- controlled. For situations where no cooling was provided, which
per disk, which were lled with thermal paste. A thermocouple was were used to nd the natural temperature of the plate with and
also placed roughly 5 cm above the membranes surface to measure without evaporation, the airow and chiller bath were not used.
the air temperature. Additionally, thermocouples measured the air The experiment was considered to be at steady state when the tem-
temperature at the inlet and outlet of the acrylic disk. From the perature of the copper and the evaporation rate remained constant
measurement of the air temperatures, the cooling load provided to for at least 30 min. The repeatability of the evaporation tests was
the copper by the air could be assessed using an energy balance, conrmed with multiple trials.
Eq. (1).
q = m cp (Tout Tin ) (1)
3.2. Degradation testing procedure
where q was the cooling load that would be needed to maintain
the particular copper disk temperature, m was the mass ow rate To begin this part of the experiment, a new membrane was
of the air, cp was the specic heat of air, and T was the inlet and out placed on the acrylic substrate with its center over the feeding
temperatures of the air. tube. Both the distilled water reservoir and the salt water (main)
reservoir were brought to just below the height of the membrane.
2.2. Degradation experimental setup To begin wetting, the high water reservoir was opened. When
the membrane was sufciently wet, the high water reservoir was
The degradation setup was similar to the evaporative appara- closed and the membrane pumped only from the distilled water
tus described above in terms of materials, water feeding, and data reservoir. After steady state was determined to have been reached,
collection. However, instead of using a copper disk, the membrane a three-way valve was turned causing the membrane to only be
rested on a at acrylic plate. Also, salt water was used in the main able to draw from the salt water reservoir. In the time following,
reservoir at a concentration of 25 g per 100 mL of distilled water. the membrane pumped salt water before becoming clogged. Time
Additionally, in this setup, there was a third reservoir, which was lapsed pictures taken with a camera showed the buildup of salt in
connected to the feeding line through a three-way valve. This third the membrane as discussed in the next section.
reservoir, containing distilled water was used to allow the mem-
brane to operate until steady state evaporation was reached.
4. Passive cooling results and discussion
3. Experimental procedure
The rst series of tests performed aimed to study the effect of
3.1. Evaporative testing procedure the lamp power output on the evaporation rate of the membrane,
which was not subjected to air-cooling underneath. In this case, the
Several different conditions were imposed on the copper plate. bottom surface of the copper disk was insulated. This experiment
First, the wetted membrane was allowed to evaporate freely under was meant to mimic a real situation of the sun shining on a roof.
various lamp intensities without air-cooling underneath, which led Also, it created a baseline for evaporation rate and plate tempera-
to various steady state plate temperatures. The same was also done ture when exposed to various lamp intensities for comparison to
with a dry membrane. Next, experiments utilized the cooling air future experimental boundary conditions. While the evaporation
ow underneath the test section to maintain the plate at tempera- data displaying the steady state behavior over time is not shown
tures below its natural steady state temperature determined in the here (these can be basically understood as a horizontally aligned
previous set of tests. The xed temperature of the test section was data set, with the x- and y-axes representing the time and the evap-
enforced by xing the volumetric ow rate of air at 43,000 cm3 /min oration rate, respectively.), the results indicated that increasing the
and adjusting the bath temperature such that the air inlet tempera- power supplied by the lamp onto the test section increased the
ture could be controlled recall that the cooling goes through a bath evaporation rate. With this relationship being somewhat expected,
with an adjustable temperature (i.e., programmable chiller). Con- perhaps more interesting was the fact that, in conjunction with
sequently, this variation of the inlet temperature of the cooling air the increase in evaporation rate, the increase in lamp intensity
ensured that this was capable of adsorbing enough heat to meet the also caused an increase in the temperature of the copper plate, as
plate temperature criteria. Furthermore, using the inlet and outlet shown in Fig. 2. Additionally, attention should be drawn to the plate
temperatures of the air under the plate, the required cooling load temperature when no load was imposed. Due to the evaporation,
was calculated using the energy balance discussed previously; this the plate temperature was slightly lowered below the tempera-
cooling load can be understood as an undesirable heat leak into the ture of the surrounding environment. Intuitively, it can also be
buildings structure. argued that the plate temperature for the highest heat ux tests was
To begin the evaporation part of the experimental tests, the lamp still below 40 C, representing a temperature gain of approximately
was set to the desired power and the copper disk was placed in the 12 C when compared with a conditioned indoors temperature of
proper location as per the 2D characterization map (Section 2.1). A approximately 24 C this point will be further discussed next.
R. Crawford, A.K. da Silva / Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219 15

Fig. 2. Temperature of the copper plate test section under various loading conditions
imposed by the lamp for an evaporating membrane at steady state operations. Fig. 4. Effect of plate temperature on evaporation rate (left vertical axis) and cool-
ing required to maintain particular plate temperatures for evaporating and dry
membranes (left vertical axis), all for a lamp intensity of 315 W/m2 .
Next, the performance of the evaporation system on plate tem-
perature was compared against other possible roof congurations,
such as white and dark roofs, with no cooling provided underneath. G is the solar radiation,  is the StefanBoltzmann constant, is
The measured experimental results for the evaporating membrane, the reectivity and Tsky is the far eld sky temperature. In this
seen in Fig. 3 as solid circular markers, showed an increase in plate case, its surface temperature was simulated for the various lamp
temperature as a function of lamp intensity. To mimic a white roof, a intensities, as seen in Fig. 3 as open triangular markers. There-
dry membrane replaced the evaporating membrane for the testing fore, these are not measured values, but rather estimated points.
of different lamp intensities these measurements are represented The results indicated that the temperature of the copper plate was
by the solid squares on Fig. 3. Recall that the dry membrane was considerably lower when employing the evaporating membrane as
white as compared to a wet membrane, which was transparent, compared to the tested dry membrane (i.e., white roof) and the sim-
except for the copper disk underneath, which ultimately enforced ulated EPDM (i.e., dark roof) over the range of intensities considered
a zero transmissivity for the wet membrane/copper disk assem- in the tests even for a zero heat ux condition, since evapora-
bly. The experimental results for the plate temperature for the dry tion is able to lower the plate temperature below that of the dry
membrane, also showed an increase with lamp intensity. Note that membrane. Moreover, as the lamp intensity increased, the temper-
a data point for the white roof at 434 W/m2 is not present. This ature disparity between the roofs widened. At a maximum tested
was due to the temperature of the lamp becoming very high for the intensity of 434 W/m2 , the simulated EPDM was 24 C above the
extended period of time required to bring the white roof to steady evaporation system. Therefore, if the copper test section was to be
state. Out of concern for the testing equipment and the data points considered a roof with the lamp being the sun, a roof employing the
contribution being minor, it was not included in the testing. To cap- evaporation system would keep the roof temperature noticeably
ture the behavior of a system with a dark surface, the performance lower. This is important when considering the conduction of energy
of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), a common roong through the roong structure that the air conditioning must then
material, was calculated with a simple convection, radiation energy cool.
balance for a well insulated roof (i.e. minimal conduction) using its The results above suggest that the lamp intensity dictated the
known properties (solar reectance 0.06 and emittance 0.86) [2] plate temperature and the evaporation rate when no cooling was
and estimated air temperatures, Eq. (2). provided underneath by owing air. While this observation is inter-
esting in itself, it does not indicate which of these two factors is
h(Ts T ) = G s(Ts4 Tsky
4
) (2)
more inuential on the evaporation rate. However, if air cooling is
where h is the convection heat transfer coefcient, Ts is the surface applied to the bottom surface of the copper plate, and its cooling
temperature, T is the air temperature, is the solar absorptivity, capacity is adjusted by varying the air ow rate and inlet temper-
ature, the copper plate temperature becomes independent of the
lamp wattage. To further explore this, a new set of tests was per-
formed for a given dissipation of the halogen lamp (i.e., 315 W/m2 )
and several temperature values for the copper plate. The results,
which are represented by the solid circles in Fig. 4, show that the
evaporation rate can be highly affected by the plate temperature
for a lamp power of 315 W/m2 , as the plate temperature was
decreased, the evaporation rate followed suit. This suggests a strong
dependence of the evaporation rate on the temperature of the
plate.
Also interesting is the required amount of cooling needed to
lower the plate temperature and the air temperature increase
as it ows under the plate these are also depicted in Fig. 4
through the open markers for the wet and dry membranes in
the right axis. Referring back to Eq. (1), q = m cp (Tout Tin ),
the cooling required was calculated by applying the energy bal-
ance, to the air owing underneath the test section, where m
Fig. 3. Plate temperature for an evaporating and dry membrane along with the was the mass ow rate (the product of the volumetric ow rate
calculated EPDM covered copper plate temperature under different lamp intensities. and air density), cp was the specic heat of air (cp = 1.005 kJ/kg/K)
16 R. Crawford, A.K. da Silva / Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219

and Tout Tin was the air temperature change across the test sec-
tion. Undoubtedly, the most interesting aspect of these data is
that the curves representing the wet and dry membranes cross
each other for a plate temperature around 24 C. This indicates
that, at higher plate temperatures (e.g., >24 C) the evaporative
membrane was able to maintain a particular plate temperature
with less cooling aid than the dry membrane. As the plate tem-
perature was required to reach lower values (i.e., <24 C), the
dry membrane required comparatively less cooling load than
the evaporative membrane to maintain lower plate tempera-
tures.
This behavior can be potentially explained by analyzing the
direct relationship between the plate temperature and the evap-
oration rate. As the evaporation rate was restricted (i.e., low plate
temperatures), it was unable to carry away as much energy from
the plate thus requiring greater cooling loads. Therefore, it was
shown that for these conditions, the dry membrane started to out-
perform (i.e., require less cooling load) the evaporating membrane Fig. 5. Cooling required to maintain a constant plate temperature of 20 C for an
evaporating and dry membrane.
once the plate temperature dropped below 24 C. Arguably, the
intersection of the performance of the two systems would shift
relative to plate temperature based on the imposed thermal load 5. Degradation results and discussion
of the lamp. Extrapolating the thought further, if the evaporation
rate was hindered for a reason other than articially lowering the The initial spreading of saltwater in the membrane was cap-
plate temperature, perhaps by fouling of the membrane, neglect- tured with time-lapse photography see Fig. 6. Over the course
ing changes in the optical properties, the temperature of the plate of the rst hour, the saltwater (darker shading) was seen moving
possibly would increase. radially outward from the point source, as shown in frames A and
To show an extreme case of the outperformance of the dry mem- B. In a membrane that had just become saturated with saltwater,
brane over the evaporating membrane, the plate temperature was the saltwater at the membrane edge could not travel further. At
kept at 20 C for the data shown in Fig. 5, and the cooling load this point, the water evaporated leaving behind the salt. As evap-
was measured for different lamp intensities. Again, cooling was oration occurred, the remaining solution approached its solubility
accomplished by providing owing chilled air through the acrylic limit. Once that threshold was reached, crystallization began. Salt
chamber underneath the copper plate. The gap in cooling require- crystallization became visible a little over an hour into the experi-
ments between the dry and evaporating membranes increased ment beginning at the outer radius, as reported in frame C. As time
with increasing lamp intensity. At a maximum tested intensity progressed, different levels of salt buildup were observed in the
of 434 W/m2 , an additional 125 W/m2 was required to maintain membrane during the accumulation process. Referring to hour 6,
the plate temperature for the evaporating membrane. It should be frame D, the white, outermost ring was a region of pure salt crystal-
noted that since the plate was pinned to 20 C, the evaporation rate lization with no visible water present. In this area, the membrane
was severely impacted. At this plate temperature, for all tests, the was rigid. The next ring inward was a zone where the solubility
evaporation rate was measured to be roughly 15 mg/min, regard- limit had been reached but some visible water remained waiting
less of the lamp intensity, which is relatively low when compared to be evaporated. It was unclear if this region was still drawing
with the rates reported in Fig. 3. replenishment water from the reservoir. The innermost section was

Fig. 6. Time-lapse imaging of salt accumulation in the membrane.


R. Crawford, A.K. da Silva / Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219 17

Fig. 7. SEM image comparison of a (a) fresh membrane and (b) a membrane post degradation testing.

saturated with saltwater below the solubility limit. From scanning the membrane to thermally shield the roof the incoming thermal
electron microscope (SEM) images obtained, the presence of salt load.
was seen clogging the pores compared to a new membrane, Fig. 7. Additionally, these trials used salt, which was dissociated in the
As salt continued to be left behind as the water evaporated, the distilled water. Particles smaller than the pore size would pass eas-
effective evaporation area decreased, thus decreasing the evap- ily through the membrane and collect around the outer radius much
oration rate, Fig. 8. This coincided with the inward moving salt like the salt. If the solid particles were larger than the size of the
ring from the time-lapse photography, Fig. 6. Initially, the steady pores, clogging would start at the locations of the blocked pores
state evaporation rate from the membrane at room conditions rather than around the outer ring. Nevertheless, as demonstrated,
was approximately 10 mg/min. A decreasing trend was observed the integrity of the membrane is vital to maintaining the highest
until the membrane was clogged, at which time, the evaporation possible evaporation rates. Therefore, in a situation where rainwa-
was steady near zero. Although the evaporation rate leveled off at ter or greywater was repurposed, it might be appropriate to rst
about 0.8 mg/min, the membrane was considered clogged. Vari- lter the water.
ations between trials can be attributed to minor uctuations in
evaporation rates and the random nature of the membranes pore 6. Resource analysis
structure. All tests, however, exhibit the same trend of evaporation
decrease associated with membrane clogging. Also, a spike in the To give a rough estimated physical sense of water consumption
evaporation rate can be observed in Fig. 8 over the course of the to this preliminary study on air conditioning aid by evaporative
rst hour. This abnormality could potentially be attributed to the cooling, a generic, at roof, commercial building in Austin, TX was
changing of reservoirs from the distilled water to the salt water. considered. Using the measured evaporation rate for the various
As expected, the evaporation rate in conjunction with the con- lamp intensities when the test section was not air cooled (i.e., refer-
centration of foreign particles would determine the buildup rate ring back to Fig. 2), the trend measured was linearly extrapolated
of material in the membrane, consequently affecting the pumping to estimate the evaporation rates for all imposed solar radiation
ability of the membrane. In other words, it can be understood experienced during a typical, clear, summer day in Austin, TX [15],
that the incoming thermal energy promotes the pressure gradi- where radiation uxes reach roughly 900 W/m2 . For such uxes, it
ent needed (via coolant evaporation at the membrane surface) to was estimated that the system would evaporate water at a peak rate
pump coolant from the reservoir to the membrane. However, even of 0.0122 kg/min/m2 . Integrating the resultant normalized evapo-
if the thermal energy is effectively present, the accumulation of ration rate over the course of a day, the total water consumption
residues within the membrane can increase the ow resistance of the system by evaporation would be 7.4 kg/m2 (1.96 gal/m2 ) as
and even partially block the membrane, which would prevent uid shown in Fig. 9.
ow. The nal effect on the cascade process is the lessening of the
pumping ability of the membrane and, consequently a reduction of

Fig. 9. Total water consumption over the course of a typical August day in Austin,
Fig. 8. Decrease in evaporation rate over time as salt built up in the membrane. TX (August 2, 2012).
18 R. Crawford, A.K. da Silva / Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219

While this cumulative consumption rate can be considered high, options for their cost effectiveness and ability to withstand envi-
it is fundamental to put it in perspective, and compare it, for exam- ronmental exposure.
ple, against the national average of 7.57 l (2 gal) of water needed
to produce 1 kWh of electricity as reported by Torcellini et al. [16].
For simplicity, the evaporation systems usage, over the course of 7. Conclusion
a day, is rounded to 7.57 l of water for every square meter it is
implemented on a roof. Those 7.57 l could alternatively be used In this study, an evaporation based, passive pumping system
to produce 1 kWh of electricity. Considering an air conditioning integrated to a roof-like structure was investigated for its ability
system with a coefcient of performance (COP) equal to 3, to jus- to lessen air conditioning loads by blocking the amount of energy
tify the evaporation systems usage, it would have to offset 3 kWh entering a building through the roof. To simulate a roof/sun situa-
worth of cooling per square meter of implementation. Referring to tion, the system was composed of a porous membrane resting on
Fig. 4, with no cooling provided to the evaporation system with top of an air cooled copper plate while being heated by a halogen
315 W/m2 imposed by the lamp, the dry membrane, representing lamp from above. From the membrane, distilled water evaporated,
a white roof, required roughly 88 W/m2 (2.1 kWh/m2 ) of cooling to shielding the roof while drawing replenishment from a reservoir.
maintain an equate plate temperature. While this is lower than the The results for the evaporative cooling showed that, as the lamp
required 3 kWh for justication, the lamp intensity was about one intensity increased, the plate temperature and the evaporation rate
third of peak solar radiation conditions. It is anticipated that the increased as well, when no air cooling was provided underneath the
3 kWh justication would be met for higher radiation values. Addi- plate. However, when air cooling was provided and the plate tem-
tionally, when considering the evaporation system in use verse a perature was pinned below its natural steady state temperature for
dark roof, which has a much higher absorption than a white roof, a given lamp intensity, the evaporation rate decreased, suggesting
it is believed that the water usage would have an increased justi- a strong dependence of the evaporation rate on the plate temper-
cation. Given the above, it is fundamental to reinforce the fact ature. Additionally, an inection point can be seen to determine
that this analysis should be simply interpreted as a rough esti- if an evaporative or a white surface condition is more appropri-
mate of the water consumption when compared with other cooling ate. In the testing conditions presented in this study, the results
technologies. suggest that when the plate temperature was articially lowered
Also, a basic economic analysis can provide an estimate of the below 24 C, for the given imposed load of 315 W/m2 , the dry mem-
cost associated with the use of the evaporative cooling technique. brane (i.e. white roof) required less cooling aid than the evaporation
For instance, the membranes used in this study were circular with membrane; conversely, the evaporative cooling was more efcient
a diameter of 9 cm coming at a cost of approximately $560/m2 . for a plate temperature above 24 C. The evaporation system was
Therefore, it can be expected that the membrane itself might rep- also compared to a dry membrane and a simulated EPDM coating
resent a large part of the overall cost of the system. However, given when no cooling air was provided underneath the test section. It
the application considered, it is probably more efcient to install was found that the evaporation system maintained a signicantly
the membranes over structures using large sheets. Such a strategy lower plate temperature than the other two conditions when no
would also help to reduce the cost of the membrane, which can air cooling was provided, with lower plate temperatures equating
be found in sheets measuring 0.304 m by 3 m at a cost of roughly to less heat transfer into the structure.
$300/m2 . Also, with the idea of sustainability in mind (i.e., the use of non-
It is also instructive to consider other possible uses for the roof puried or ltered water), the membrane was intentionally fouled
area available. For instance, while PV technology can only be indi- with salt to monitor its effect on evaporation rate along the time.
rectly compared with the evaporative cooling considered in this As the system evaporated water, the salt was deposited, clogging
study, it does represent a plausible option, specially given the cur- the pores from the outer radius, inward, decreasing the evapora-
rent cost trend of installed PV, which has being reduced by over 10% tion rate, therefore, affecting the cooling capability of the system.
from 2010 to 2011 [17]. For instance, in 2011, the combined cost Ultimately, it is expected that the time scale of fouling is a function
of residential and commercial systems with less than 10 kW were of the contaminate concentration, the relative particle size to the
averaging $6.13/W, while larger commercial systems up to 100 kW membrane pore size and the evaporation rate.
were $4.87/W. Using the standard test conditions (STC), which cor- Finally, while this is still a fundamental study, we believe this
respond to 1000 W/m2 irradiance, efciencies of c-Si PV systems evaporation system can potentially help to reduce the energy
can reach 14% [18]. This would mean that 10 kW systems would requirements of air conditioning systems. With the positive results
require 71.4 m2 while larger, 100 kW systems would need an area of this study, it is believed that the system would not be contained
of 714 m2 . Based on the installed pricing, 10 kW and 100 kW sys- to just implementation on a roof but perhaps to the sidewalls as
tems would cost roughly $858/m2 and $681/m2 , respectively. well. However, further research is needed, and it should potentially
By simply comparing the two options described above, it can focus on implementing this system in conjunction with PV arrays,
be observed that the cost of the membrane is roughly 5564% the for example. In the shade of a tilted PV array, one could receive the
cost of installed solar. However, it must be kept in mind that the benets of electricity production and enhanced cooling. Addition-
membrane estimate did not include the cost of other components ally, porous media of different thermal masses might be of interest
or installation. Additionally, this basic analysis did not consider the to investigate. Moreover, while the ultimate goal of this research
membranes durability (i.e., how often this membrane would need would be to test and monitor a real building roof under real con-
to be replaced when exposed to true environmental conditions) or ditions while being passively cooled by the discussed evaporation
maintenance, as this was not its intended purpose. Furthermore, method, a series of aspects needs to be considered, such as cost,
these $/m2 estimates were not done on the same basis; i.e., while durability, maintenance. This would also give a better perspective
the membrane provides cooling, PV system generates electricity. as to the implementation costs of such a system.
Therefore, they are just an indication of an approximate cost mea-
sure of different technology that could be applied to a roof, and
a more through analysis is need to compare these technologies. Acknowledgement
For instance, other membrane like structures such as porous media
should be explored. Recalling the various porous rocks Wanphen The authors acknowledge the support of the National Science
and Nagano [19] used, it might be appropriate to explore those Foundation (NSF).
R. Crawford, A.K. da Silva / Energy and Buildings 71 (2014) 1219 19

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