Cooling Towers

Main Features of Cooling Towers

• Cooled water is needed for, for example, air conditioners, manufacturing processes or
power generation.

• A cooling tower is an equipment used to reduce the temperature of a water stream by

extracting heat from water and emitting it to the atmosphere. This figure shows a cooling
tower. Cooling towers make use of vaporation whereby some of the water is evaporated
into a moving air stream and subsequently discharged into the atmosphere. As a result,
the remainder of the water is cooled down significantly .

• Cooling towers are able to lower the water temperatures more than devices that use only
air to reject heat, like the radiator in a car, and are therefore more cost-effective and
energy efficient.

Components of a cooling tower :

• Frame and casing: support exterior enclosures

• Fill: facilitate heat transfer by maximizing water / air contact

• Splash fill

• Film fill

• Cold water basin: receives water at bottom of tower

Frame and casing:

Most towers have structural frames that support the exterior enclosures (casings), motors,
fans, and other components. With some smaller designs, such as some glass fiber units, the
casing may essentially be the frame.

Fill:

Most towers employ fills (made of plastic or wood) to facilitate heat transfer by
maximizing water and air contact.

There are two types of fill:

Splash fill:
New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com
 water falls over successive layers of horizontal splash bars, continuously breaking into
smaller droplets, while also wetting the fill surface. Plastic splash fills promote better heat
transfer than wood splash fills.

Film fill:

consists of thin, closely spaced plastic surfaces over which the water spreads, forming a
thin film in contact with the air. These surfaces may be flat, corrugated, honeycombed, or other
patterns. The film type of fill is the more efficient and provides same heat transfer in a smaller
volume than the splash fill.

Cold-water basin:

The cold-water basin is located at or near the bottom of the tower, and it receives the
cooled water that flows down through the tower and fill. The basin usually has a sump or low
point for the cold-water discharge connection. In many tower designs, the cold-water basin is
beneath the entire fill. In some forced draft counter flow design, however, the water at the
bottom of the fill is channelled to a perimeter trough that functions as the cold-water basin.
Propeller fans are mounted beneath the fill to blow the air up through the tower. With this
design, the tower is mounted on legs, providing easy access to the fans and their motors.

Components of a cooling tower :

• Drift eliminators: capture droplets in air stream

• Air inlet: entry point of air

• Louvers: equalize air flow into the fill and retain water within tower

• Nozzles: spray water to wet the fill

• Fans: deliver air flow in the tower

Drift eliminators. These capture water droplets entrapped in the air stream that otherwise would
be lost to the atmosphere.

Air inlet. This is the point of entry for the air entering a tower. The inlet may take up an entire
side of a tower (cross-flow design) or be located low on the side or the bottom of the tower
(counter-flow design).

Louvers. Generally, cross-flow towers have inlet louvers. The purpose of louvers is to equalize
air flow into the fill and retain the water within the tower. Many counter flow tower designs do
not require louvers.

New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com
Nozzles. These spray water to wet the fill. Uniform water distribution at the top of the fill is
essential to achieve proper wetting of the entire fill surface. Nozzles can either be fixed and
spray in a round or square patterns, or they can be part of a rotating assembly as found in some
circular cross-section towers.

Fans. Both axial (propeller type) and centrifugal fans are used in towers. Generally, propeller
fans are used in induced draft towers and both propeller and centrifugal fans are found in forced
draft towers. Depending upon their size, the type of propeller fans used is either fixed or variable
pitch. A fan with non-automatic adjustable pitch blades can be used over a wide kW range
because the fan can be adjusted to deliver the desired air flow at the lowest power consumption.
Automatic variable pitch blades can vary air flow in response to changing load conditions.

Types of Cooling Towers

We will now look at the two main types of cooling towers:

The natural draft and mechanical draft cooling towers

Natural Draft Cooling Towers :

• Hot air moves through tower

• Fresh cool air is drawn into the tower from bottom

• No fan required

• Concrete tower <200 m

• Used for large heat duties

The natural draft or hyperbolic cooling tower makes use of the difference in temperature between
the ambient air and the hotter air inside the tower. It works as follows:

• Hot air moves upwards through the tower (because hot air rises)

• Fresh cool air is drawn into the tower through an air inlet at the bottom.

Due to the layout of the tower, no fan is required and there is almost no circulation of hot air that
could affect the performance. Concrete is used for the tower shell with a height of up to 200 m.
These cooling towers are mostly only for large heat duties because large concrete structures are
expensive.

New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com
Mechanical Draft Cooling Towers

• Large fans to force air through circulated water

• Water falls over fill surfaces: maximum heat transfer

• Cooling rates depend on many parameters

• Large range of capacities

• Can be grouped, e.g. 8-cell tower

Mechanical draft towers have large fans to force or draw air through circulated water. The water
falls downwards over fill surfaces, which help increase the contact time between the water and
the air - this helps maximize heat transfer between the two. Cooling rates of mechanical draft
towers depend upon various parameters such as fan diameter and speed of operation, fills for
system resistance etc.Mechanical draft towers are available in a large range of capacities. Towers
can be either factory built or field erected – for example concrete towers are only field erected.

Many towers are constructed so that they can be grouped together to achieve the desired
capacity. Thus, many cooling towers are assemblies of two or more individual cooling towers or
“cells.” The number of cells they have, e.g., a eight-cell tower, often refers to such towers.

Mechanical Draft Cooling Towers

Three types

• Forced draft

• Induced draft cross flow

• Induced draft counter flow

Forced Draft Cooling Towers

New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com
 • Air blown through tower by centrifugal fan at air inlet

• Advantages: suited for high air resistance & fans are relatively quiet

• Disadvantages: recirculation due to high air-entry and low air-exit velocities

How it works: air is blown through the tower by a fan located in the air inlet

• Advantages:

• Suited for high air resistance due to centrifugal blower fans

• Fans are relatively quiet

• Disadvantages: Recirculation due to high air-entry and low air-exit velocities, which can
be solved by locating towers in plant rooms combined with discharge ducts .

Induced Draft Cooling Towers

• Two types

• Cross flow

• Counter flow

• Advantage: less recirculation than forced draft towers

• Disadvantage: fans and motor drive mechanism require weather

Induced Draft Counter Flow CT :

New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com
 • Hot water enters at the top

• Air enters at bottom and exits at top

• Uses forced and induced draft fans

Induced Draft Cross Flow CT

• Water enters top and passes over fill

• Air enters on one side or opposite sides

• Induced draft fan draws air across fill

New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com
 FLUIDIZED BED COOLING TOWER

AIM:

To Determine the Performance Test in Cooling Tower

Introduction

The cooling tower is one of the most important device in chemical industries for example
when the hot water come from heat exchanger we use the cooling tower to cool it.
The purpose of cooling tower is to cool relatively warm water by contacting with
unsaturated air. The evaporation of water mainly provides cooling.
In a typical water cooling water tower, warm water flows countercurrent to an air stream.
Typically, the warm water enters the top of packed tower and cascades down through the
packing, leaving at the bottom.
Air enters at the bottom of the tower and flows upward through the descending water.
The tower packing often consists of slats of plastic or of packed bed. The water is distributed by
troughs and overflows to cascade over slat gratings or packing that provides large interfacial
areas of contact between the water and air in the form of droplets and films of water. The flow of
air upward through the tower can be induced by the buoyancy of the warm air in the tower
(natural draft) or by the action of a fan.
The water cannot be cooled below the wet bulb temperature. The driving force for the
evaporation of the water is approximately the vapor pressure of the water less the vapor pressure
it would have at the wet bulb temperature.

Procedure:
1- Introduce water and record its flow rate.
2- Put the heaters on so that water is heated to the required temperature.
3- Introduce air and record its flow rate.
4- Wait for steady state then record steady state dry and wet bulb temperature of air at
the entrance and exit.
5- Record the inlet and outlet temperature and flow rate of water also record
temperature at different stages.
6- Change the air flow rate and repeat step 3 on.

New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com
TABULATION:

S.NO T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 CTA CTR

EFFICIENCY
(°C) (°C) (°C) (°C) (°C) (°C) (°C)

T1 = Room temperature

T2 = Hot water Inlet

T3 = Air out

T4 = Packing Sheet Temperature

T5 = Collecting Tank Temperature

Cooling tower approach:

CTA = Packing Sheet Temp – Collecting Tank Temp

= T4 – T5

Cooling Tower Range:

CTR = Hot water inlet Temp - Packing Sheet Temp

= T2 – T4

Efficiency of cooling tower:

ECT = [(T2-T4) / (T2 – T5)] * 100

New No. 3, Old no. 2, S.V . Koil Street, Sekar Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Chennai – 600 083
Phone: +91 (044) 4352 1779 | Cell: (+91) 9789976777, 9789975777& 9940077338
Email: [email protected], [email protected] www.elshaddaiengg.com