COOLING TOWER CALCULATION

Cooling towers are special type of heat exchanger that allows water and air to
come in contact with each other to lower the temperature of the hot water. During this
process, small volumes of water evaporate, lowering the temperature of the condenser
cooling water. The following discusses the calculation and design of the said equipment.
From the condenser calculation, the following parameters were obtained:
Mass of Cooling Water Mw: 66,544.78624 gal/min
Cooling Water Inlet Temperature Ta: 48.9559 F
Cooling Water Outlet Temperature Tb: 73.9559 F
Make-up Water Temperature Tmu: 68 F
(Based on the ambient temperature of water)
Atmospheric Pressure: 101.325 Kpa
Air Inlet Dry Bulb Temperature T1db : 33.9 C
Air Inlet Wet Bulb Temperature T1wb : 26.7 C
Relative Humidity RH: 50%
(Air Condition is based on summer condition of Manila City obtained from ASHRAE
website)
For the outlet air condition, assume a Temperature Differential of 5.5 C and a
Relative Humidity of 90% (according to Power Plant Engineering by Morse, Frederick)
T2db=33.9 C + 5.5 C = 39.4 , Psat @ 39.4 = 7.151 kPa.
First, obtain the humidity ratio and the enthalpy of air entering the cooling tower.
From the psychrometric chart at 33.9 C dry bulb and 26.7 C wet bulb temperatures.
ω1=0.011 kg moisture/kg da h1=55 kJ/kg. Since the outlet air condition falls outside
the limits of psychrometric chart, conduct a calculation using the following equation:
Ps
RH =
Psat
Ps=0.90× 7.151 kPa
Ps=6.4359 kPa
For humidity ratio of exhaust air:
Ps
ω 2=0.62198 ×
Patm−Ps
6.4359
ω 2=0.62198 ×
101.325−6.4359
 kg moisture
ω 2=0.0422
kg da
For the enthalpy of exhaust air:

h2 =t 2 +ω 2 (2501+ 1.805t 2)

h2 =39.4+0.0422(2501+(1.805× 39.4))
kJ
h2 =147.9433
kg
Then the make-up water per kg dry air Δω:
Δω=ω2−ω1

Δω=0.0422−0.011
kg moisture
Δω=0.0312
kg da
Conduct a heat balance calculation to determine the flow rate of water per kg of
air. The enthalpies of saturated water of cooling water are Hfa=62.88 kJ/kg ; hfb=90.79
kJ/kg. The enthalpy of make-up water hfmu=83.92 kJ/kg . The corresponding heat
balance is:

h1 + ( ωw ×h fa ) + ( ∆ ω × hfmu )=h 2+ ( ωw ×h fa )

( 147.9433−55 ) −(0.0312 ×83.92)

ωw=
97.76−39.59
kg water
ω w =1.5528
kg da
Since the mass of cooling water is 66,544.78624 gal/min or 252,204.7 kg/min.
The air flow is:
kg water
252,204.7
min kg
=162,419.6
kg water min
1.5528
kg da
The specific volume of air at 33.9 C dry bulb and 26.7 c wet bulb is 0.865 m3/kg
da hence the air flow is:

kg m3 m3
162,419.6 ×0.865 =140,493
min kg min
The make-up water is:
kg da kg water kg water
162,419.6 × .0312 =5065.235
min kg da min
 A performance coefficient for evaporative coolers is given by the following
equation:
t a−t b
Cooling Efficiency=
t a−t w
48.9559−73 .9559
Cooling Efficiency=
48 .9559−80.06
Cooling Efficiency=80.38%