Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2021.

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Hohyun Lee

Abstract

With our product, The Drier Dryer, we aim to increase the efficiency of clothing dryers. This report contains an indepth look at the design approach we are taking to create our product. Our design utilizes a thermoelectric cooler combined with heat sinks and heat pipes to efficiently cool air to its dew point temperature and then reheat the air prior to sending it into a clothes dryer intake. Cooling the air to dew point temperature allows moisture to be removed from the air consequently decreasing the relative humidity. Throughout our design process we obtained simulation results providing a theoretical temperature the air needs to be cooled down to in order to remove moisture based on various design conditions. Our results showed that for conditions of 27 °C (80 °F) and 80% relative humidity, based on a design state of Hawaii, we require at least a 4 °C temperature difference across the cold side heat sink. Results from experimental testing in Santa Clara, CA on our two iterations of prototypes yielded a maximum temperature difference of approximately 2 °C. After applying our future plans to further idealize our prototype design as well as incorporating design conditions based on our simulation results, we aim to further increase our temperature difference allowing us to prove our theoretical results experimentally.

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