Desiccant wheel (DW) hybrid cooling and dehumidification systems have been studied to maintain a healthy and comfortable indoor environment with low energy consumption, especially in hot and humid climate zone. In these systems, DW energy performance, which is affected by structural parameters and operation conditions, has significant influence on the system energy saving potential. In this paper, a DW energy performance index, energy moisture ratio (EMR) was proposed to evaluate the influence of DW parameters on its energy performance. An experimental setup was built to investigate the performance of a co-current flow DW, under different process and regeneration air conditions. By using a one-dimensional DW simulation model, the influence of DW structural parameters, including regeneration section angle (varies from 60° to 240°), DW thickness (50 mm to 100 mm), rotational speed (10r•h ^− 1 to 18r•h ^− 1) and air flow patterns (counter current flow and co-current flow), have been evaluated. DW performances were evaluated in terms of moisture removal capacity (MRC), sensible energy ratio (SER), and EMR. It was found that high MRC always accompanied with high SER, and adopting MRC and SER to evaluate DW comprehensive energy performance is not applicable. Low EMR can be obtained with small regeneration section angle, thin DW thickness, slow rotational speed and counter current flow pattern, and EMR is an effective index for evaluating the energy performance of a DW.

已经研究了干燥剂轮（DW）混合冷却和除湿系统，以维持健康，舒适的室内环境，且能耗低，尤其是在炎热潮湿的气候区。在这些系统中，受结构参数和运行条件影响的DW能量性能对系统的节能潜力具有重大影响。本文提出了一种DW能量性能指标，能量水分比（EMR），以评估DW参数对其能量性能的影响。建立了一个实验装置来研究并流DW在不同工艺和再生空气条件下的性能。通过使用一维DW模拟模型，DW结构参数的影响，包括再生截面角度（从60°到240°不等），ħ  ^{-  1}至18R• ħ  ^{-  1}）和空气流型（逆流和顺流），已被评估。根据除水能力（MRC），感能比（SER）和EMR评估了DW性能。结果发现，高MRC总是伴随着高SER，而采用MRC和SER来评价DW综合能源性能是不适用的。低EMR可获得较小的再生截面角，较薄的DW厚度，较慢的转速和逆流模式，而EMR是评估DW能量性能的有效指标。