Cooling Tower

Refrigeration and Air

Forced draft: When air or flue gases are maintained above atmospheric
pressure. Normally it is done with the help of a forced draft fan.
Induced draft: When air or flue gases flow under the effect of a
gradually decreasing pressure below atmospheric pressure i.e. Negative
Pressure.
Parts Of Cooling Tower
Frame and casing: Most towers have structural frames that support the
exterior enclosures (casings), motors, fans, and other components. With
some smaller designs, such as some glass fiber units, the casing may
essentially be the frame.
Fill: Most towers employ fills (made of plastic or wood) to facilitate heat
transfer by maximizing water and air contact. There are two types of fill:
Splash fill: water falls over successive layers of horizontal splash bars, continuously
breaking into smaller droplets, while also wetting the fill surface. Plastic splash fills
promote better heat transfer than wood splash fills.
Film fill: consists of thin, closely spaced plastic surfaces over which the water
spreads, forming a thin film in contact with the air. These surfaces may be flat,
honeycombed, or other patterns. The film type of fill is the more efficient and
provides same heat transfer in a smaller volume than the splash fill.
Fills and Casing
Cold-water basin: The cold-water basin is located at or near the bottom of
the tower, and it receives the cooled water that flows down through the
tower and fill. The basin usually has a sump or low point for the cold-
water discharge connection.
In some forced draft counter flow design, the water at the bottom of the
fill is channeled to a perimeter trough that functions as the cold-water
basin. Propeller fans are mounted beneath the fill to blow the air up
through the tower. With this design, the tower is mounted on legs,
providing easy access to the fans and their motors.
Drift eliminators: These capture water droplets entrapped in the air stream that otherwise
would be lost to the atmosphere.
Louvers: Generally, cross-flow towers have inlet louvers. The purpose of louvers is to
equalize air flow into the fill and retain the water within the tower. Many counter flow tower
designs do not require louvers.
Air Intake Louvers prevent sunlight from entering your cooling tower.
Nozzles: These spray water to wet the fill. Uniform water distribution at the top of the fill is
essential to achieve proper wetting of the entire fill surface. Nozzles can either be fixed and
spray in a round or square patterns, or they can be part of a rotating assembly as found in
some circular cross-section towers.
Fans: Both axial (propeller type) and centrifugal fans are used in towers. Generally,
propeller fans are used in induced draft towers and both propeller and centrifugal fans are
found in forced draft towers.
Depending upon their size, the type of propeller fans used is either fixed or variable pitch. A
fan with non-automatic adjustable pitch blades can be used over a wide kW range because
the fan can be adjusted to deliver the desired air flow at the lowest power consumption.
Automatic variable pitch blades can vary air flow in response to changing load conditions.
Drift Eliminators and Louvers
Cooling Tower Material
Wood--- frame, casing, louvers, fill, and cold water basin (or concrete).
Galvanized steel, various grades of stainless steel, glass fiber and concrete,
aluminum and various types of plastics for some components Large towers are
made of CONCRETE.
Plastics are widely used for FILL, including PVC, polypropylene and other
polymers
Plastics also find wide use in nozzle materials.
Cooling Tower Types
Cooling towers fall into two main categories:
Natural draft.
Mechanical draft.
Mechanical draft towers are available in the following airflow arrangements:
1. Counter flows induced draft.
2. Counter flow forced draft.
3. Cross flow induced draft.
Cross flow
Cross flow is a design in which the air flow is directed perpendicular to the water
flow (see diagram below). Air flow enters one or more vertical faces of the cooling
tower to meet the fill material. Water flows (perpendicular to the air) through the
fill by gravity.
Counter flow
In a counter flow design the air flow is directly opposite of the water flow (see
diagram below). Air flow first enters on an open area beneath the fill media and is
then drawn up vertically. The water is sprayed through pressurized nozzles and
flows downward through the fill, opposite to the air flow.
Natural draft
Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney.
Warm, moist air naturally rises due to the density differential to the dry, cooler
outside air.
Warm moist air is less dense than drier air at the same temperature and pressure.
Natural draft towers are typically about 400 ft (120 m) high, depending on the
differential pressure between the cold outside air and the hot humid air on the inside
of the tower as the driving force.
No fans are used.
Working
The natural draft or hyperbolic cooling tower makes use of the difference in
temperature between the ambient air and the hotter air inside the tower. It works as
follows:
Hot air moves upwards through the tower (because hot air rises)
Fresh cool air is drawn into the tower through an air inlet at the bottom.
Due to the layout of the tower, no fan is required and there is almost no circulation of
hot air that could affect the performance. Concrete is used for the tower shell with a
height of up to 200 m. These cooling towers are mostly only for large heat duties
because large concrete structures are expensive.
Air drawn through Cooling Air drawn across Cooling
water water
Fills located Inside tower Fills located outside tower
Types of Natural draft cooling tower
There are two main types of natural draft towers:
Cross flow tower: air is drawn across the falling water and the fill is located outside
the tower.
Counter flow tower: air is drawn up through the falling water and the fill is therefore
located inside the tower, although design depends on specific site conditions.
Types of Cooling Towers Mechanical
Draft Cooling Towers
Large fans to force air through circulated water.
Water falls over fill surfaces: maximum heat transfer.
Cooling rates depend on many parameters.
fan diameter and speed of operation, fills for system resistance etc.
Large range of capacities.
Can be grouped i.e. 8 cell tower.
Types of Cooling Towers Forced Draft
Cooling Towers
Air blown through tower by centrifugal fan at
air inlet.
Advantages: suited for high air resistance &
fans are relatively quiet
The forced draft benefit is its ability to work
with high static pressure. They can be installed
in more confined spaces and even in some
indoor situations.
This fan/fill geometry is also known as blow-
through.
Disadvantages: recirculation due to high air-
entry and low air-exit velocities
Disadvantages
Mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at the intake. The fan forces air into
the tower, creating high entering and low exiting air velocities. The low exiting
velocity is much more susceptible to recirculation.
Which can be solved by locating. towers in plant rooms combined with discharge
ducts.
With the fan on the air intake, the fan is more susceptible to complications due to
freezing conditions.
Another disadvantage is that a forced draft design typically requires more motor
horsepower than an equivalent induced draft design.
Two types of induced draft cooling towers
Cross flow
Counter flow
Advantage:
Less recirculation than forced draft towers because the speed of exit air is 3-4 times
higher than entering air
Disadvantage:
Fans and the motor drive mechanism require weather-proofing against moisture and
corrosion because they are in the path of humid exit air
Types of Cooling Towers Induced Draft
Counter Flow CT
Hot water enters at the top
Air enters at bottom and exits at top
Uses forced and induced draft fans
Water enters top and passes over fill
Air enters on one side or opposite sides
Induced draft fan draws air across fill
Advantages
flexibility
cost effectiveness
air flow almost constant regardless ambient air temperature
adapted to any water flow
flexible operation by shutting some cells
adapted to severe thermal performance
all types of structure wood, concrete, steel
Cooling tower Performance
These measured parameters and then used to determine the cooling tower performance in
several ways.
1. Range
2. Approach
3. Effectiveness
4. Cooling capacity
5. Evaporation loss
6. Cycles of concentration
7. Blow down losses
8. Liquid / Gas ratio
Range
Difference between cooling water inlet and outlet temperature:
Range (C) = CW inlet temp CW outlet temp (In) to the Tower (Out) from the
Tower
High range = good performance
A high CT Range means that the cooling tower
has been able to reduce the water temperature
effectively, and is thus performing well.
Approach
Difference between cooling tower outlet cold water temperature and ambient wet
bulb temperature
Approach (C)= Cooling water outlet temperature
-Wet Bulb Temperature (Ambient)
Low Approach= Good Performance
Effectiveness Hot Water Temperature
Effectiveness in ratio between range and ideal range.
Effectiveness= Range/ (Range +Approach)
High Effectiveness = Good Performance
Cooling Capacity
Ton of Refrigeration
Cooling Capacity = mass flow rate of water * specific heat *temperature difference
High cooling capacity = good performance
Evaporation Loss
Water quantity (m3/hr) evaporated for cooling duty.
= theoretically 1.8m3for every 10,000,000 Kcal heat rejected.
1 kCal = 4184 J
= 0.00085 x 1.8 x circulation rate (m3/hr) x (T1-T2)
Temprature diffrence between water inlet and outlet.
(E) = .001 (Cr ) (T)
where Cr = circulation rate in gallons
per minute and T = temperature differential between hot and
cold water in F. The evaporation rate amounts to 1% of the
recirculation rate for every 10F T.
Cycle of Concentration
This is determined by calculating the ratio of the concentration of dissolved solids in
the blowdown water compared to the make-up water.
Blow down
When water evaporates from the tower, dissolved solids (such as calcium,
magnesium, chloride, and silica) remain in the recirculating water.
As more water evaporates, the concentration of dissolved solids increases.
If the concentration gets too high, the solids can cause scale to form within the
system. The dissolved solids can also lead to corrosion problems.
The concentration of dissolved solids is controlled by removing a portion of the
highly concentrated water and replacing it with fresh make-up water.
Windage Loss
This is a relatively small amount of entrained water lost as fine droplets in the air
discharge from a tower. Unlike evaporation which does not contain dissolved
impurities windage carries these impurities with it and reduces dissolved solids in the
circulating water. Typical values are 0.1% to 0.3% of the circulating rate for
mechanical draft towers.
Bleed off
In the evaporation process the non volatile impurities in the make up water are
concentrated. To prevent excessive concentration some of the circulating water must
be removed from the system. This is commonly referred to as bleed off or blowdown.
The amount of bleed off can be determined from the following equations:
% B (bleed off) + % (windage) = % E (evaporation loss) / (cycles -1)
Factors Affecting Tower Efficiency
1. The main areas for improving the energy efficiency of cooling towers are:
2. Selecting the right cooling tower (because the structural aspects of the cooling
tower cannot be changed after it is installed)
3. Fills
4. Pumps and water distribution system
5. Fans and motors