Dynamic Simulation of Heat Transfer through Cooling Tower

Using MATLAB Simulink

Rajasekar S 1, Aparna D 2, Minakshi A 3 and Meyyappan N 4
Department of Chemical Engineering
Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Tamil Nadu, India 602117
nmena@svce.ac.in

Abstract: This paper deals with the control dynamics of transient simulation of heat transfer through
Cooling tower using simulation tool. The main objective of this research is to find an effective tuning
method for controlling a cooling tower using controller. Cooling tower is one of the important
systems with wide diversity of applications in in oil refineries, petrochemical plants and other
chemical plants, thermal Power stations. The transfer function is taken as First Order System Plus
Dead Time (FOPDT). The effect of step change in the temperature is observed and analysed at steady
state. Transient simulation response of heat transfer through cooling tower is generated using Matlab
Simulink. The simulation results for the inlet step change in heat transfer through cooling tower is
discussed in the paper.
Keywords: FOPDT; step change; steady state; cooling tower; simulation
Introduction
A cooling tower is a heat rejection device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a
water stream to a lower temperature. It uses the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the
working fluid to near the wet bulb air temperature. Here, Markel’s theory is used which is based on enthalpy
potential difference as driving force. The behavior of the cooling tower should be predicted for transient
operating condition and steady-state operating condition to reduce future possible failures and loss in
maintenance costs. Two factors are mainly to be considered in the design of the cooling tower-feasibility and
controllability. .Feasibility refers to the flexibility at a given operation mode and controllability refers to the
transition between different operation modes. The carrying of liquid with the gas stream is termed as liquid
entrainment. This may be due to high rate of air flow which should be avoided to get better performance.
Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in Oil refineries, petrochemical and other
chemical plants, thermal power stations and HVAC systems for cooling buildings. The classification is based on
the type of air induction into the tower: the main types of cooling towers are Natural draft and mechanical draft
(induced and forced) cooling towers. The hyperboloid structures which are as large as 660ft are associated with
nuclear power plants. A model was formulated for forced draft cooling tower which has been taken into account
for variation of outlet temperatures with respect to time interval and flow rates. To know the stability of the
cooling tower the experiment was carried out and the transfer function was derived for different step changes in
the cooling tower, simulations were done using a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID).

PID Controller

PID controllers are named after the Proportional, Integral and Derivative control modes they have.
They are used in most automatic process control applications in industry. PID controllers can be used
to regulate flow, temperature, pressure, level, and many other industrial process variables. A PID
controller has a Set Point that the operator can set to the desired temperature. The Controller’s Output
sets the position of the control valve. And the temperature measurement, called the Process Variable
gives the controller its much-needed feedback. The process variable and controller output are
commonly transmitted via 4 –20mA signals, or via digital commands on a Fieldbus. When everything
is up and running, the PID controller compares the process variable to its set point and calculates the
difference between the two signals, also called the Error (E).Then, based on the Error and the PID
controller’s tuning constants, the controller calculates an appropriate controller output that opens the
control valve to the right position for keeping the controlled variable at the set point. If the controlled

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Author et al., International Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise Applications, 17(1), June-August, 2016, pp. xx-xx

variable should rise above its set point, the controller will reduce the valve position and vice versa. A
proportional controller (Kp) will have the effect of reducing the rise time but it will never eliminate
the steady-state error. An integral control (Ki) will have the effect of eliminating the steady-state
error, but it may make the transient response worse. A derivative control (Kd) will have the effect of
increasing the stability of the system, reducing the overshoot, and improving the transient response.
All design specifications can be reached with the PID controller and 100% desired conditions can be
achieved. Tuning a control loop is the adjustment of its control parameters (proportional band/gain,
integral gain/reset, derivative gain/rate) to the optimum values for the desired control response. PID
tuning is a difficult problem, even though there are only three parameters and in principle is simple to
describe, because it must satisfy complex criteria within the limitations of PID control. There are
accordingly various methods for loop tuning, and more sophisticated techniques are the subject of
patents; this section describes some traditional manual methods for loop tuning. Designing and tuning
a PID controller appears to be conceptually intuitive, but can be hard in practice, if multiple (and often
conflicting) objectives such as short transient and high stability are to be achieved. PID controllers
often provide acceptable control using default tunings, but performance can generally be improved by
careful tuning, and performance may be unacceptable with poor tuning. Usually, initial designs need
to be adjusted repeatedly through computer simulations until the closed-loop system performs or
compromises as desired. Some processes have a degree of nonlinearity and so parameters that work
well at full-load conditions don't work when the process is starting up from no-load; this can be
corrected by gain scheduling (using different parameters in different operating regions).

Experimental Setup

This setup consists of forced draft cooling tower of height 2.03m and 0.0225 sq. m in cross section
where air is sent to the tower with the help of blower at the bottom. Heating of water is done by heater
at 230V. Water is cooled by the air as long as its temperature is above the wet bulb temperature of the
entering air. The flow of water and air is counter-current as the former flows in downward direction
and the latter in upward direction through the aluminium foil as shown in the figure. Temperature
variation is realized by temperature sensors and flow rates are adjusted with the help of rotameter.
Variation in air velocity is measured using manometer. Initially the valves V1-V5 and switches on the
panel are ensured at off position. The by-pass valve V3 is opened before switching on the pump. Then
the water is heated up with the help of heater at 230V. Then the hot water is allowed to flow through
the cooling tower ad flow rate adjusted by control valve V2. Later, the flow rate of air is adjusted with
the help of valve V4 provided in pipeline. The dry air outlet temperatures (T3) are noted at 40 LPH at
a constant time interval of 2 minutes.

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Author et al., International Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise Applications, 17(1), June-August, 2016, pp. xx-xx

Observations
The system can be represented by first order system plus dead time (FOPDT). The following table shows the
temperature of outlet air at two different flow rates. The following table shows the dry air and cold air outlet
temperature at different flow rates.

Time(min) Dry air outlet

temperature(Celsius)

2 52.1

4 51.5

6 52.2

8 52

10 52.5

12 52.7

14 52.5

16 52.4

18 52.1

20 51.8

Tuning Rules

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Author et al., International Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise Applications, 17(1), June-August, 2016, pp. xx-xx

The following values are calculated using the above formulae,

Method CC ZN ITAE MOM

ZI 1.46 1.2 27.77 33.62

ZD 0.217 0.3 0.0065 16.52

KC 56.46 50.55 24.115 1.1189

Results and Discussions

The response curves are obtained using MATLAB Simulink. For 40 LPH dry air outlet temperature, the
response curves are as follows,
CC Method

Z-N Method

ITAE Method

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Author et al., International Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise Applications, 17(1), June-August, 2016, pp. xx-xx

Moment of Method

The simulation result shows that the change in air temperature has reached steady state faster in Moment of
method.

References

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