Experimental study on cooling and dehumidification performance of an ice storage air conditioner used in underground refuge chamber

Temperature and humidity control in underground refuge chamber is an important issue in the case of power failure after a disaster. In this article, an ice storage air conditioner was newly developed for refuge chambers. A series of tests were conducted to investigate the ice storage, cooling, and dehumidification performance of the air conditioner. In addition, based on the orthogonal experimental principle, the effect of the key inlet air parameters such as speed, temperature and relative humidity on the cooling and dehumidification performance was analyzed in a systematic manner. Results show that: (i) the ice storage function could be completed by freezing the ice to below −15 °C within 60 h. After testing for 96 h, the outlet air temperature of the ice storage air conditioner is less than 23 °C; (ii) the effect of the inlet air parameters on the cooling and dehumidification performance could be found as velocity > temperature > relative humidity; (iii) the dehumidification efficiency of the ice storage air conditioner could decrease by 12.81%, while the cooling efficiency could decrease by 14.11% when the inlet air velocity increases from 5 m/s to 15 m/s.