The Best Design for a Direct Evaporative Cooling System Based on Pressure Drop at Desired Saturation Efficiency: A Cost–Benefit Optimization

In this study, saturation efficiency and pressure drop, two critical parameters for the direct evaporative cooling phenomenon, were numerically investigated and optimized. For this purpose, the direct evaporative cooling process was simulated at inlet air velocities in the range of 1–3 m/s on different thicknesses of CELdek 7090 evaporative cooling pad from 100 to 300 mm. The mathematical model of pressure drop and saturation efficiency was developed by analyzing variance at R-squared values of 99.53