Open Collections

Sadooghi, Ala

University of British Columbia

Membrane-based Energy Recovery Ventilators (mERVs) are important components in modern ventilation systems, as they recover heat and moisture from outgoing exhaust air, helping to improve indoor air quality and reduce energy consumption. This study explores methods to enhance the thermal performance of mERVs through numerical modeling and experimental study. A novel hybrid approach combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the Finite Difference Method (FDM) was employed, focusing on portion modeling to reduce computational demands. By simulating only a portion of the mERV and finding heat transfer coefficients, the computational time was decreased significantly from 60 hours to 4 hours, while maintaining high accuracy in performance predictions. This model was validated against experimental data, proving its reliability in estimating mERV effectiveness. The study further examined the impact of changing the channel height of one side of the selected geometry on mERV performance. Results showed that reducing the channel height from 2 mm to 1 mm increased sensible effectiveness from 57–68% to 64–72% and latent effectiveness from 40–55% to 46–60% across different flow rates, demonstrating substantial improvements in heat and mass transfer. Additionally, the effects of ribbed geometries were analyzed to enhance heat and mass transfer. Experimental and numerical analyses revealed that incorporating ribs improved sensible effectiveness from 54–63% to 56–66% and latent effectiveness from 37–47% to 42–55%, across different flow rates, highlighting the advantage of ribbed configurations for enhanced performance. Overall, the findings demonstrate that specific geometrical adjustments, particularly in channel height and ribbed configurations, can significantly enhance the thermal efficiency of mERVs.

Text

2024-12-20

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89967

Mechanical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/