CFD Investigation of the Wetting Characteristics of Aqueous Ionic Liquid Solution on an Aluminum Fin-Tube Substrate

In absorption systems, the heat and mass transfer performance of falling film devices is significantly affected by the wetting characteristics of the liquid-solid pair. A new ionic liquid and aluminum fin-tube substrate are introduced as a liquid-solid pair for liquid desiccant air conditioning systems. Previous studies have experimentally and theoretically investigated the wetting characteristics of the aqueous ionic liquid on the aluminum fin-tube substrate. In this study, computational fluid dynamics is used to capture the detailed wetting characteristics of the aqueous ionic liquid solution on the same substrate. The CFD model is validated by comparing the computational results with the experimental data and theoretical predictions in a wide range of solution flow rates at both increasing and decreasing flow rates. The results from this study contribute to a more realistic performance prediction and design of fin-tube gas-liquid contactors.