Abstract
An experimental study is conducted to cool the outdoor air using a new humidification technique. A wind tunnel is built with a membrane-covered tray serving as a test section. Outdoor air passes over a tray full of water and covered by a specific membrane. Air temperature and relative humidity data are measured before and after the tray for several air velocities and for three different angles of the tray. Air velocity is measured at different locations along the centerline of the rectangular wind tunnel cross section before the tray. For almost fixed outdoor temperature before the test section, results show that as the angle of the tray increases, the drop in air temperature increases, which improves the efficiency of the humidification technique. This enhancement is reflected by a maximum and minimum drop in air temperature of 13.05 degrees C and 2.41 degrees C, respectively. This maximum cooling is obtained using a 10 degrees C tray angle orientation. Results also show in general that as the tray angle increases, the difference in the air relative humidity before and after the test section increases at high air velocities.