DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF

FLUIDIZED BED COOLING TOWER

A PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

GOKULRAJ P (731616114017)

JAYAMURUGAN K S (731616114027)

KALEESWARAN D (731616114032)

MOHANAKRISHNAN D (731616114049)

in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree

of
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

K S R INSTITUTE FOR ENGINEERING AND

TECHNOLOGY
TIRUCHENGODE – 637 215
ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600025
APRIL 2019

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 ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600025
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report “DESIGN AND FABRICATION

OF FLUIDISED BED COOLING TOWER” is the bonafide work of
“GOKULRAJ P, JAYAMURUGAN K S,KALEESWARAN
D,MOHANAKRISHNAN D” who carried out the project work under my
supervision.

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
Dr. P. MURUGESAN,M.E., Ph.D., Mr. M. SATHISKUMAR ,M.E.,
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT, SUPERVISOR,
Professor, Assistant Professor,
Department of Mechanical Department of Mechanical
Engineering, KSR Institute for Engineering, KSR Institute for
Engineering and Technology, Engineering and Technology,
Tiruchengode – 637 215. Tiruchengode – 637 215.

Submitted for the Project report Viva-Voce Examination held

on______________

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We sincerely acknowledge offering our word of thanks and gratitude

to the management and our beloved Founder and Chairman of our college
Lion Dr. K.S. RANGASAMY MJF, who provided all the facilities to us.

We would like to express our special gratitude and thanks to our

beloved Vice chairman Thiru.R.SRINIVASAN B.B.M, who provided the
opportunity to do our project.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to our Principal

Dr.M.VENKATESAN M.E., Ph.D., for forwarding us to do our project
and offering adequate duration in completing the project.

We are also grateful to our Head of the Department, Department of

Mechanical Engineering Dr.P.MURUGESAN M.E., Ph.D., for his
constructive suggestions & encouragement during our project.

We extend our thanks to our guide’s Mr. M. SATHISHKUMAR,

M.E., Assistant Professor for her valuable guidance, support and ideas
throughout the entire work of our project. We wish extend our sincere
thanks to all faculties of our mechanical engineering department for their
valuable suggestions, kind co-operation and constant encouragement for
successful completion of this project.

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 ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to investigate experimentally and

theoretically heat and mass transfer characteristics of the cooling tower.

These heat and mass transfer devices are based on the evaporative cooling

of water in contact with ambient air. The working volume of the tower is

filled with packing material to increase contact between the two phases. A

column – packing unit is made of new type of packing named plastic ball.

An experimental investigation has been carried out to find out the effect of

the packing material on the performance of a Fluidized Bed Cooling Tower

(FBCT). Form the experiments it is observed that the characteristics of the

packing material does have a definite effect on the performance of FBCT.

Modifications of the theoretical predictions based on the single stage

equilibrium model in the light of the present experiments help in the

predictions of the performance of the FBCT using packing material.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapte TITLE Page

r No. No.

ABSTRACT iv

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

1. INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.2 TYPES OF COOLING TOWER 1

1.2.1 Natural Draft Cooling Tower 1

1.2.2 Mechanical Draft Cooling Tower 2

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 3

2.1 LITERATURE SURVEY 3

3. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP 6

3.1 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION 6

3.2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 8

4. COMPONENTS’ DESIGN AND SPECIFICATION 10

4.1 FLOW METER 10

4.1.1 Introduction 10

4.1.2 Types of Flowmeters 10

4.2 AIR BLOWER 12

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 4.2.1 Introduction 12

4.2.2 Definition 13

4.2.3 Centrifugal Blower 13

4.3 U-TUBE MANOMETER 14

4.4 THERMOCOUPLE 15

4.5 TYPES OF THERMOCOUPLES 16

4.5.1 Type K Thermocouple 16

4.5.2 Type J Thermocouple 16

4.5.3 Type T Thermocouple 17

4.5.4 Type E Thermocouple 17

4.5.5 Type N Thermocouple 18

4.5.6 Noble Metal Thermocouples 18

4.5.7 Type S Thermocouple 18

4.5.8 Type R Thermocouple 19

4.5.9 Type B Thermocouple 19

4.6 TEMPERATURE SCANNER 20

4.7 AIR FLOWRATE MEASUREMENT 21

4.8 WATER FLOWRATE MEASUREMENT 23

4.9 TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT 24

5. DESIGN AND FABRICATION 27

5.1 FRAME 27

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 5.2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 27

5.3 DIMENSION 29

5.4 MODEL CALCULATION 29

5.5 MODEL CALCULATION 30

5.6 EXPERIMENTAL CALCULATION 31

6. RESULT AND DISCUSSION 33

7. ADVANTAGES 34

8. CONCLUSION 35

REFERENCES 36

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table TITLE Page

No. No.
5.1 Experimental Cooling Tower 29

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure TITLE Page

No. No.

3.1 Experimental Cooling Tower 7

4.1 Spiral Casing 14

4.2 U-Tube Manometer 15

4.3 Temperature Scanner 21

5.1 Experimental Setup 32

6.1 Line Diagram of FBCT 34

6.2 Experimental 3d model of the cooling tower 34

6.3 Meshing of the cooling tower 35

6.4 Heat flux of the cooling tower analysed using 37

ANSYS

6.5 Temperature distribution 37

6.6 Velocity of water flow in the cooling tower 38

6.7 Overall Efficiency (CFD) 39

7.1 flow of hot water and air mixture 41

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7.2 CFD analysis of ANSYS with FBCT 42

7.3 Working Model of FBCT 45