Physical insight and modelling of a coupled sensible and moisture storage for dry cooler enhancement

The concept of coupled storage for dry cooler enhancement, based on the coupling of heat and humidity storages in a single module, has been experimentally studied and characterized in a previous study by the authors. The experimental results have highlighted that such storage can be effective to reduce the drop of performances for air-cooled condenser under high ambient temperatures and that fine understanding and interpretation of what happens inside the storage tank requires a dedicated numerical model. This paper presents in details the modelling of the coupled heat and moisture storages. The model is first validated on data from the literature in purely sensible and sorption operations. When compared to experimental data of coupled heat and moisture storage, the model exhibits very good qualitative agreement and good to correct quantitative agreement, depending on the considered parameters and the tests. The model allows to give physical insight of coupled sensible and moisture storage by giving local information and behaviours that are not available from measurement devices. The model needs further enhancements but is already of upmost importance for characterization and design of such coupled storage.