Residential humidifying elements having horizontal corrugated channels

Abstract

Abstract A residential humidifying element has been traditionally made by pleating a non-woven fabric, which consisted of 90% rayon and 10% polyethylene (rayon/PE, 90/10). The price of this element is rather expensive, mainly due to the high content of rayon. In the present study, new samples made of materials with a reduced rayon content (rayon/PET, 50/50) or with a cheap kraft composite (kraft/PET, kraft/PET\xa0+\xa0carbon, 50/50) were tested, and the results are compared with those of a traditional one. The humidification efficiency increased as the content of the moisture absorbing material (rayon, for example) increased. For example, compared to the average efficiency of rayon/PET (50/50) sample, that of rayon/PE (90/10) sample was 60% higher. Carbon coating to a kraft/PET (50/50) sheet increased the efficiency by 18%. probably due to the improved water absorbing characteristics. To recover the reduced humidification efficiency of kraft/PET (50/50), an enlarged sample having 4.0\xa0mm depth (compared with 2.6\xa0mm depth of the traditional one) was proposed. Compared with the traditional one, the new sample provided a higher efficiency and a lower pressure drop. When the height of the sample was reduced by ¼, the reduced sample yielded 27% higher humidification efficiency than the unreduced one. When the samples were fully wet, however, the humidification efficiencies were almost the same independent of the sheet material.