CooltwrsA.ppp1
COOLING TOWERS
Cooling towers use the principle of evaporative or 'wet bulb'cooling in order to cool water.The main advantages over a conventional heat-exchangerare:** they can achieve water temperatures
below
thetemperature of the air used to cool it.** they are smaller and cheaper for the same cooling load.The main disadvantage of cooling towers is their need forcareful maintenance to minimise the risk of water fouling andwater-borne organisms e.g. Legionnaire's disease.There are two main types of cooling tower:
forced draught
and
natural draught
. However, their principles of operationare identical.The latter typically have a characteristic waisted design:
CooltwrsA.ppp2
Warm water
in
Cooled water
out
air
in
air
in
Packingair
out
(a2)(w1)(w2)(a1)make-upwater
Forced draught cooling tower
CooltwrsA.ppp3
From continuity:(dry air)(water)The difference in water flows has to be 'made up' by 'makeup' water.Energy:-
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
( )
m h m h m h m h m h m h m h h
w w a a w w a aw w w w a a a
1 1 1 2 2 21 1 2 2 2 1
+
=
+
-
=
-
\
The amount of water lost by evaporation is typically only avery small percentage of the water inlet flow, therefore :-
&
( )
&
( )
m Cp t t m h h
w w w w a a a
1 1 2 2 1
-
»
-
Conditions within the cooling tower are typically such that theemerging air is very close to 100% saturated.The aim of a cooling tower is to cool water to the maximumextent. It therefore needs to be kept in contact with the air foras long as possible. In theory the minimum watertemperature that can be achieved is the wet bulbtemperature of the incoming air. However, a tower wouldhave to be made unduly tall to achieve this. A reasonablelimit is to achieve a temperature within 5 to 8K of the wetbulb temperature.
(
)
1221
aaaww
mmm
w
w
-
=
-
&
&
&
aawaaw
aaa
mmmm
mmm
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
2211
21
w
w
+
=
+
=
=
of 00
Cooltwrs
782 Reads
Info and Rating
| Category: | Uncategorized. |
| Rating: | (1 Rating) |
| Upload Date: | 06/23/2009 |
| Copyright: | Attribution Non-commercial |
| Tags: |
Leave a Comment