COOLING TOWER

HUMIDIFICATION/COOLING TOWER
Saddawi
2013
The Goal of the Experiment

The goal of this experiment is to determine heat and mas

balance for countercurrent air-water system in a Packed
Cooling Tower.
To find the Characteristic equation, Number of Transfer
Units NtoG and Number of Heights Transfer Units HtoG
Murphree gas phase stage efficiency and the Overall cooling
tower effectiveness efficiency
Experimental Setup
Base unit components include:
1. Air distribution chamber.
2. A tank with heaters to simulate cooling loads of
0.5, 1.0 and 1.5kW.
3. A makeup tank with gauge mark and float
operated control valve.
4. A centrifugal fan with intake damper to give
0.06kg s-1 max. air flow.
5. A water collecting basin.
6. An electrical panel

Note

Use distilled water to fill the makeup tank . Monitor and record the amount
of water evaporated during all of the test operations of the cooling tower.
Check wet bulb thermocouple reservoir for water. Add if necessary.
This can be done by measuring the time needs to spend by added amount of
water to the make-up tank.
After the system reach to study sate,
Record all temperatures, dry and wet bulb temperatures of the air and water
temperature of all sections, mass flow-rate of ware and air.
 Some background theory
The basic function of a cooling tower is to cool water by
intimately mixing it with air.
This cooling is accomplished by a combination of:
Sensible heat transfer between the air and the water (Conduction
and Convection) and it controlled by temperature differences
and area of the contact between air and water.
And the evaporation of a small portion of the water.
In the cooling towers, the evaporation is the most effective part
in the cooling process
Mass Balance and Enthalpy Balance on Cooling Tower
*Please see page 12 equations (1,2,&3)
Water T2 t2 Air
Take mass balance over a differential section (see the fig.) Inlet H2 h2 outlet

mw - mw1 = ma (Y -Y1' ) (1)

mw ma

dmw = ma dY (2) 2
*Mass velocity of dry air remain constant through the
cooling tower

Take enthalpy balance over the same differential section

dz
z
mw H + mah1' = mw1' H1' + mah (3)
1’

*Because the latent heat of water is a big value, so a

small amount of water evaporation will produce large
cooling effect. 1
Therefor we can assume the mass velocity of the Water T1 t1 Air
Outlet H1 h1 Inlet
water falling down through the tower is constant with mw ma
out large consequences error
Please see equation (4) on page 12

mw (H - H1' ) = ma (h1' - h) (4)

Equation (4) can be rewritten in term of heat balance as in equation (5)

mwCpw dT = ma dh (5)
Where
m a Dh = ma (Cpair dt + l3dY )

Take the integral of eq (5) over entire Column

mwCpw (T2 -T1 ) = ma (h2 - h1 ) (6)

Eq (6) represent Air Bulk Operating Line by plotting air enthalpies

versus water temperatures.
 mw
Slope of (NO) line =

Enthalpy of Air
Cpw
ma

h2
O

h1
N

T1 T2
Water Temperature
Cooling Tower Operating line
(Air bulk operating line)
 Saturated Air
Saturated Air Operating line water vapor Film

If you assume that the drops of water

falling through the tower are surrounding
by a thin air film, Water
* This film must be saturated with water bulk at
temp T
vapor.
* The heat and mass transfer take place
between the film and the upstream air bulk

Where there is no resistance to heat flow in the

Heat movement
interface between the saturated air film and
water. In other words, the interface temperature Air bulk at temp t
can be assumed to be equal to the bulk water
temperature (Merkel assumption)
T(wart temperature) ≈ ti (interface temperature)

By plotting the enthalpies of the saturated air–water vapor mixture

(film) and water bulk temperatures will produce a curve, please see
the Figure.
This carve represent Saturated Air Operating line or can be called
Water Operating line
The relation between the temperature and
enthalpy of the saturated air
H2

Enthalpy
H3
h2
This curve applies to the air film H1
h3
surrounding the water
It called Water Operating Line h1
And limited for hot and cold water
temp (T2 and T1)
T1 T3 T2
Water Temperature

Air Operating Line or

Tower Operating Line
Represent Air condition Driving Force Diagram
through the column Enthalpy Driving Force
H2-h2
Cooling Range
T2-T1
Mass Balance and Enthalpy balance on Cooling Tower
In terms of mass and heat transfer coefficients.
*Please see page 15-19

mwCpw dT = ma dh
(5)
Where
m a dh = ma (Cpait dt + l3dY )

ma dh = hg a(ti - t)dz + lw K y a(Yi -Y )dz (7)

dh Kya
By rearrange eq 7 = dz (8)
pleas see eq 11&12 on page 17
(H i - h) ma
h2
dh K ya z
K y az
Take integral over entire Tower ò =
(H i - h) ma
ò dz = ma
(9)
h1 o
h2
dh ky a z
ky az
ò =
(H i - h) ma
ò dz = ma
= HtoG Heights of
Transfer Units
h1 o

NtoG = Number of Air

Enthalpy Transfer Units
By combing eqs (5 &9)

Merkel’s Equation
T2
KaV dT
= Cpw ò
mw T1 H w - ha

H w - ha = Dhm
This equation is commonly referred to as the Merkel equation. The
left-hand side of this equation is called the ”Tower Characteristic,”
which basically indicates the 'degree of difficulty to cool' the water or
the 'performance demand' of the tower.

The tower characteristic and the cooling process can be explained on

a Psychrometric Chart
 KaV Cpw (T2 - T1 )
=
mw Dhm
Please note that V=Z =Volume occupied by packing
per unit plan area

To obtain mean driving force (∆hm) Carey and Williamson method

can be used. This depends upon the application of correction factor
f to the observed value of Hm- h3 (at the arithmetic mean of inlet
and out let water temps T1 & T2)

g1 = H1 - h1
g 2 = H 2 - h2
g m = H 3 - h3
Dhm = f g m
Characteristic Cooling Tower Equation

KaV mw
By ploting values of versus
mw ma

KaV mw n
= b[ ]
mw ma
 The cooling tower effectiveness .ε. is defined as the ratio of the
actual energy transfer to the maximum possible energy transfer

h2 - h1
e=
H 2 - h1
Murphree gas phase stage efficiency Yas
Y2
Y1

Y2 -Y1
EMG = tas t2 t1
Yas -Y1 Air Temps