I am looking for some guidance on calculations for a natural condenser project. I am a Computer Engineering student, so this stuff is out of my range.
The fundamental question I am trying to answer is: what fan speed is required to push air through the following system to overcome head loss?
A basic mockup of the system is shown below. Some additional details of the design:
- This will be installed in a greenhouse to reduce humidity and ideally collect some water for reuse.
- The long, narrow rectangles represent PVC pipes of diameter 20cm (0.2m). Both pipes are identical, aside from length.
- The storage tank on the bottom will collect any condensed water.
Functional procedure of the design:
- Humid air (90% relative humidity, 30 deg C) will enter the pipe at stage 1. A fan will be installed to move air down.
- The air will travel 2m down into the ground (denoted by the rectangle) to a storage tank at (12.7 deg C). The humid air will condense into liquid in the cooler temperature and collect in the storage tank.
- The air will travel 2.5m up and return into the greenhouse (unknown humidity and temperature).
In our small-scale testing, we were able to achieve condensation using a computer fan and 1.5" diameter PVC pipe. However, we'd like to calculate the required fan speed for the full scale prototype.
We attempted to calculate head loss using equations in MATLAB, but weren't sure what the pressures would be at each stage. I understand this is a lot of info, but any guidance would be much appreciated!