 Cooling tower

 Objective
To study operation of cooling tower and applying energy
balance and calculation of air mass flow rate

 Purpose
Is to cool relatively warm water by contacting with
unsaturated air. the evaporation of water mainly provides
cooling

 Introduction
o The cooling tower is one of the most important device in the
industrial application for example when the hot water come
from heat exchanger we use the cooling tower to cool it.
In 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 consist 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
warm air in the tower (natural draft ) or by the action of fan.
The water cannot ne cooled below the wet bulb
temperature.
 The driving force for the evaporation of water is
approximately the vapor pressure of the water less the vapor
pressure it would have at the wet bulb temperature,(see
figure 4)
o

 Figure 4

 Description of the apparatus :

The unite is consist from the following components and
instrument
1. Air distribution chamber
2. A tank with heaters to simulate cooling loads of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5
kw
3. Make up tank
4. A centrifugal fan with intake damper
5. Pump
6. A water collecting basin
7. An electrical control panel
8. Packed column
9. Column cap
10. Temperature indicator
11. Inclined tube manometer
12. Variable area flow meter
 Cooling range : the difference between the water temperature at
the entry and exit from the tower
 Cooling load : the rate at which the heat is removed from the
water
 Make up : the quantity of fresh water which must be supplied to
the water circuit to make good the losses due to evaporation and
other causes
 Approach to wet bulb : the difference between the temperature
of the water leaving the tower and the wet bulb temperature of
the air entering
 Effectiveness : the ratio between the range and the perfect range

 Cooling tower performance

The following factors affected the performance of cooling
tower
1. The air flow rate
2. The water flow rate
3. The water temperature
4. The air temperature and humidity at inlet (particularly
the wet bulb temperature )
5. The type of packing used (plastic)
6. The area of volume of packing
Qrej=mw Cp(twi-two)
Qad=ma (hao-hai)
Q=rate of heat transfer (kw)
Hb=specific enthalpy at air exit (kj/kg)
Ha= specific enthalpy at air inlet(kj/kg)
Ma=dry air mass flow rate (kg/s)

 Procedure

1. Start the fan and it will inject the air in to the air chamber
 2. And we Start the pump and select the amount of water we
want to send column
3. And we start the heat exchanger to heat the water as it
comes from the column
4. Water goes from heat exchanger to the top of column with
a help of pump goes through nozzles to distribute the water
in column across the fill that we increase the area to lower
the velocity of water and increase the time
5. As the water flows countercurrent of unsaturated air it gets
cooler and exits from the bottom and some of it get lost due
to the evaporation of warm water
6. Make up tank helps to make up the lost water and as for
the air it inters as cool and exits hot from the column
7. And we calculate our results when the cooler comes to off

 Some question and point to discussed

1. For what purpose used this cooling tower?

 Is to cool relatively warm water by contacting with
unsaturated air
2. When the humidity of inlet air decreases, what will happen
to the performance of cooling tower? whay?
  Humidity is the ratio of vapor water in the air the less
the humidity the hotter the air and the performance
will be less efficient because hotter air will not cool
warm water
3. When the temperature of inlet air increases ,what will
happen to the performance of cooling tower ?why?
 It will lower the performance because the air will be
hot and will not cool water
4. For fixed performance if we if we increase the air flow
rate ,what is your suggestion about the height of cooling
tower increasing or decreasing ?
 It will increases the height because it will increases the
amount of contacting
5. What are the parameter affect to performance of cooling
tower ?
 The air flow rate
 The water flow rate
 The water temperature
 The air temperature and humidity at inlet
 The type of packing used
 The area and volume of packing
6. How can you determine cooling tower efficiency ?
 Cooling rang
 Cooling load
 Approach to wet bulb
 Affectiveness
7. Which temperature is greater wet bulb temperature or dry
bulb temperature ?
  Dry bulb
8. If the Twb=30 c and Tdb=30 c what are your expect RH to be?
 RH=100