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Abstract: Evaporative cooling is an energy efficient and environmentally friendly air conditioning technology. Research and application of evaporative cooling in China have been very fruitful; however, they were little known to the world because most of works were published in Chinese. Therefore, this paper intends to present a comprehensive summary on them. The working principles and thermodynamic characteristics of different types of evaporative cooling, including direct, indirect and semi-indirect evaporative cooling, are first introduced. Experimental and theoretical research works on feasibility studies, performance test and optimization as well as heat and mass transfer analysis are then reviewed in detail. The feasibilities of evaporative cooling under different climates, efficiencies of various evaporative cooling equipment, and critical parameters and techniques for improving the efficiencies as well as numerical modeling of evaporative cooling processes are recalled. The typical systems and equipments of evaporative cooling adopted in China are reviewed in Part II. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents the typical evaporative cooling air conditioning systems used in China, including all-air central evaporative cooling systems, air–water semi-central evaporative cooling systems and hybrid desiccant dehumidification and evaporative cooling systems. Their environmental impacts and energy saving potential are illustrated, and other factors closely related to the practical application of evaporative cooling, such as water treatment, appropriate design codes and handbooks, and automatic control strategies, are outlined. The paper concludes with a discussion of the prospects for future research and applications of evaporative cooling. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A three-dimensional transient double-population thermal lattice Boltzmann BGK scheme for the global evaporator of a CPL is proposed to describe the heat and mass transfer in the porous wick, the cover plate and the vapor groove. The lattice BGK D3Q6 model, developed on passive-scalar approach, is proposed to represent the energy distribution function. The D3G15 incompressible lattice BGK model is chosen to represent the pressure distribution function to calculate the pressure and velocity fields. The random porous structure is reconstructed by the quartet structure generation set (QSGS) and is coupled to the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) by some special boundary schemes for pore scale simulation. The numerical results of different working conditions and different working fluids are presented, which can improve the understandings of heat and mass transport mechanisms in a CPL evaporator and provide guidance for the evaporator design in a CPL system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]