Spraying water on intercooler

[paccool]

The reason the fine misters work so well is the amount of air to water contact. The water can only be cooled down to what is called "wet bulb temperature" which can be anywhere from freezing to about 85 degrees in the deep south. (This is also dew point)



In Las Vegas on a typical hot summer day of say 110 degrees, the wet bulb will be around 70 degrees. It is theoretically possible to get water temps down to wet bulb but is impossible to get there practically. A cooling tower works on this principle and the best one can usually do is 5 to 10 degrees above wet bulb.



A lot of gas turbines used to produce power have a mist cooler or a wet cooling section in the inlet to cool incoming air to improve efficiency of the turbine. Cooler air is more dense so a cubic foot of air does more work.



There are a lot of factors that will make a spray system work better or worse. The size of the droplets is real critical. How many have walked by a mister system around a door or spraying from the edge of a roof. Feels real cool and that is what will happen in front of a intercooler. Probably won't work as good due to the incoming air velocity blowing the water mist past the intercooler before it drops all the way down t wet bulb.



Sorry, got going here! This will have some effect on the systems.



Stan

 

[Diesel Freak]

Re: OK OK OK

Originally posted by Whitmore

I had a brain fart... ..... where is my processing mind?



Ambient temp goes in to the compressor wheel and from the compression of the air it heats up... ... ... who knows what the temp is post compressor??? I am guessing its around 180 to 190. So then the intercooler has more duty on it than I thought... ..... DUH... ..... I think I need another probe to add to the post compression, Kevin

assuming a 70% efficient compressor 100F compressor inlet temperature, 36 PSI compressor discharge (gives 30 PSI at the intake plenum) Turbine inlet pressure is one ATM.



Turbine discharge temp is 439F That is why the intercooler is there!

 

[Whitmore]

holy cripes

Turbine discharge temp is 439F That is why the intercooler is there!



wow that is hot hot hot that intercooler has a huge task

 

[illflem]

The intercooler is very efficient. With my intake temp gauge I have never seen temps over 130°, most of time it is 60 - 90°. Highest temp I've recorded on the inlet side of the intercooler has been 320°, the outlet was 90° at the same time.

Instead of distilled water save your money and collect rain water.

How about the old time popular leaky canvas bags you would hang in front of your grill. Mini swamp cooler that worked great. Don't even know if they still sell them, haven't seen one in years.

 

[LarryB]

Originally posted by illflem

How about the old time popular leaky canvas bags...

Hah! I remember those. I didn't know they were "leaky" though. I thought they were just a convienient place to carry extra water. Anyone know if these are still available?



The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

 

[Heetseeker_1]

I did this!

After messing with the idea last year, I put together a system for my 98. I originally wanted to put a fan and sprayer on the transmission cooler but did all of the coolers once I got going. With a 9" fan on the trans cooler and the misters going, I could get a drop of 40 degrees and that was about it. It's a cool idea but has other benefits if you install the system I did. I mounted a 26gal used rv water tank onto a piece of plywood and connected a used 'on demand' 12v sureflo pump to it. At the discharge side of the pump I put in a 'T' and ran one side to the front of the truck with flex hose and put a white RV supply hose on the other side.



I purchased a mister system with 6 misters and ziptied the hose around the radiators then connected it to the hose from the pump. There was not enough water coming from the misters when I turned the pump on so I drilled holes in the mister hose and screwed in drip irrigation sprayer heads (half round pattern) so that they would spray on the radiators. With 6 heads screwed in and the original misters a monsoon was going on in the front of the truck. With the main engine fan on cooling was maximum. It was difficult to get the fan to come on though, as the truck ran cool anyway. One the white hose, I put a nozzle and can wash the truck or refill the RV tank when we are dry camping. It's a great system and has many uses. I have even used the hose to assist in cleaning and dressing deer when hunting.



Unfortunately, some guy took me out on the freeway and my truck is gone forever. I'll do it again on the next one though.



Steve.