Experimental Model to Characterize the Evaporative Cooling of Horizontal Roofs

Heat and mass transfer models were developed experimentally to characterize the evaporative cooling of horizontal roofs, heated by thermal radiation. Surface temperatures of flat plates were evaluated at dry conditions and when humidified with water atomizers. For both conditions, heat transfer rates were calculated, and for the wet case also the mass transfer rates were predicted. Experimental data for models validation were measured at environmental and controlled conditions. Accuracies achieved were 2% for surface temperature and 13% for water evaporation rate.