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Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167

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Applied Thermal Engineering


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

A simplied method on thermal performance capacity evaluation of counter ow


cooling tower
Wanchai Asvapoositkul*, Supawat Treeutok
Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The thermal performance capacity of a wet cooling tower is dominated by weather conditions, partic-
Received 11 October 2010 ularly ambient wet-bulb temperature. In this paper, the tower performance was predicted by a simplied
Accepted 11 January 2012 model which was characterized by specication of a mass evaporation rate equation. The purpose of this
Available online 21 January 2012
study was to present a calculation that was accurate and simple to implement, and could be applied to
evaluate acceptance tests for new towers, to monitor changes in tower performance as an aid in planning
Keywords:
maintenance, and to predict tower performance under changed operating conditions. The results were
Cooling tower thermal performance
validated and showed good agreement with experimental measurements. The results were also pre-
capability
Cooling tower analysis
sented in simple formats that were easy to use and understand. These allowed reduction of test data and
Merkel theory comparison of test results to design data. The method held a practical advantage for predicted tower
Predicting cooling tower performance thermal performance capability to which it was best suited when both ow rate and temperature of inlet
Performance curve water were near design conditions since it required neither the measurement of air ow rate nor the
calculation of tower characteristic hmass A=L. The expected results of this study will make it possible to
incorporate cooling tower design and simulation to evaluate and optimize the thermal performance of
power plants for example.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction correctly with the design conditions that were instructed according
to the CTI cooling tower acceptance test code [1]. Incidentally, these
Cooling towers have many applications in the elds of air- data are not only useful in the determination of thermal capacity of
conditioning, refrigeration and power plants. In the case of power the tower according to design conditions during the test run period
generation plants or sugar mill plants, the cooling tower require- but can also be used to determine the operating characteristics in
ments are relatively large and it has been the practice in recent the change in atmospheric conditions, especially temperatures.
years especially in Thailand to fabricate increasingly larger cooling Notable examples of techniques based on this approach are the
towers. For large towers or towers with special requirements that work of Fujita and Tezuka [3], Peterson and Backer [4] and Lucas
are not Cooling Technology Institute (CTI) certied, in-situ testing is et al. [5]. They demonstrated that the cooling tower characteristic
the only way to guarantee that the towers will perform as required. curve predicted from the Merkel principle is simple in terms of
For this purpose, it is quite common to use the Merkel theory such formulation and can provide reliable estimate of cooling tower
as that of CTI [1] or ASME [2] for the computation of tower char- performance at off-design. By this method, the tower operating
acteristic (hmass A=L) or Number of Transfer Units (NTU). The prob- conditions are determined directly using the slope of the cooling
lems usually encountered in analysis of cooling towers for large tower characteristic curve.
process plants included measurement of many test data with high Even though the method has been applied to predict the overall
accuracy instruments, analysis of test data and comparison of test thermal evaluation of cooling towers, there are some concerns
results to design point. This is an expensive and time-consuming about simplifying assumptions of the Merkel theory such as the
process that should be undertaken only after due consideration. neglecting of the reduction of waterow rate by evaporation and
The thermal capacity of a cooling tower is obtained by per- the saturated water vapor (or 100% relative humidity) of air at the
forming the test. The test data should be evaluated by comparing tower exit. The method tends to underestimate the heat rejected by
the cooling tower but can be used if only the water outlet
temperature is of importance [6]. Kloppers and Krger also
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 662 470 9338; fax: 662 470 9111. proposed a technique to get accurate prediction by including the
E-mail address: wanchai.asv@kmutt.ac.th (W. Asvapoositkul). water loss due to evaporation in the energy equation. The effect of

1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.01.025
W. Asvapoositkul, S. Treeutok / Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167 161

Nomenclature Twb wet-bulb temperature,  C

A exposed surface-area (air/water interface area), m2 Greek symbols


Appr approach (Tw,o  Twb),  C w specic volume, m3/kg
cp,a specic heat of dry air at constant pressure, kJ/kgK r density, kg/m3
cp,w specic heat of water at constant pressure, kJ/kgK u humidity ratio, kgw/kgda
G dry air mass ow rate, kg/s
h specic enthalpy, or specic total air enthalpy, kJ/kg Subscripts
hconv convective heat transfer coefcient, W/m2K a air
hfw enthalpy of saturated liquid water evaluated at d design value
Tw, kJ/kg da dry air
hgw enthalpy of saturated water vapor evaluated at fw saturated liquid of water
Tw, kJ/kg gw saturated vapor of water
hmass convective mass transfer coefcient, kgair/m2s i inlet
hmass A=L or NTU tower characteristics o outlet
L water mass ow rate, kg/s sw saturated water
P fan power, watt t test value
r2 correlation coefcient v vapor
R range (Tw,i  Tw,o),  C w water
RH relative humidity z z coordinates
T temperature,  C

evaporation causes the water ow rate to decrease from inlet to equivalent of a mass transfer resulting from the evaporation of
outlet; as a result, the ratio of water-to-air (L/G) varies through the a portion of the circulating water. The energy balance on the water
tower. These two effects (evaporation loss and variable L/G) were side in terms of heat and mass transfer coefcients, hconv and hmass
investigated by Baker and Shryock [7]. For calculation of counter respectively, is
ow cooling tower with evaporation loss, a constant L/G ratio
results in a 4.4% increase in NTU at a 22  C range. And evaporation Ldhfw hconv Tsw  Ta dA hmass usw  ua hgw dA (4)
loss and varied L/G ratios result in a 1.34% increase in NTU at the
The mass balance on the air side of the evaporated water mass is
degree range.
The purpose of this study was to apply the cooling tower perfor- Gdua hmass usw  ua dA (5)
mance characteristics to determine the operating characteristics for
the cooling tower being considered. The study was also to determine if The simultaneous heat and mass transfer takes place and can be
the performance curves could be used to evaluate thermal perfor- expressed by substituting (4) and (5) into (3) and through rear-
mance of the cooling tower without measurement of air ow rate and rangement we get,
the calculation of hmass A=L. And tower capacity was more accurately
Gdha hconv Tsw  Ta dA hmass usw  ua hgw dA (6)
expressed in terms of the ratio of water-to-air loading (L/G) that
included water evaporation and unsaturated air leaving the tower.

2. Theoretical analysis (basic equation)

The analysis considers an increment of a cooling process as in


control volume dz of Fig. 1 where water mass ow rate L and dry air
mass ow rate G ow uniformly of plane area. All horizontal
sections through the tower are assumed to be the same, in which
both streams move in an opposite and vertical direction (water
moves downward while air moves upward).
A mass balance and an energy balance for a steady water-spray
ow with total exposed surface-area (air/water interface area)
element dA, as in ow path dZ (assuming negligible kinetic and
potential energies and work).
Mass balance for dry air

dG 0 (1)
Mass balance for water

dL G dua (2)
Energy balance

Gdha Ldhf w hfw dL Ldhfw hfw Gdua (3)


Heat is removed from the water by a transfer of sensible heat
due to a difference in temperature levels, and by latent heat Fig. 1. Control volume for cooling tower.
162 W. Asvapoositkul, S. Treeutok / Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167

By applying and replacing the Lewis factor (hconv =hmass cp;a or


ratio of overall heat transfer to overall mass transfer), and ther-
modynamic properties of airewater, the simplied equation (6) is
  
hconv 
Gdha hmass dA hsw ha 1 hsw ha
hmass cp;a


usw  ua hgw 7

If the Lewis factor is equal to 1, we get

Gdha hmass dAhsw  ha  (8)


And if the reduction of water ow rate by evaporation is
neglected in the energy balance, we get

Ldhfw hmass dAhsw  ha  (9)

hmass dA d hfw
(10)
L hsw  ha Fig. 3. Cooling tower demand curve.

Integrating
hmassA/L value at design conditions. An empirical equation useful
Zh2 ZT2
hmass A dhfw cdTfw for predicting hmassA/L at off-design conditions is [8]:
(11)
L hsw  ha hsw  ha  n
h1 T1 hmass A L
c (12)
L G
This is known as the Merkel equation. Integration for equation
(11) is done by using Tchebyshevs method which gives a high Values of c and n are determined from performance data
degree of accuracy in the case of large cooling ranges as suggested provided by manufacturers. Typical values of n are in the range of
by CTI [1]. 0.4 < n < 0.6 [9]. If a typical value of n is assumed, the value of c can
be determined from L and G at nominal design conditions. Once c
2.1. Tower characteristics and n are known for a particular cooling tower, the cooling tower
performance can be predicted at any operating condition given the
The tower characteristics (hmassA/L) are a dimensionless variable water inlet temperature Tw,i, the ambient air wet-bulb temperature
which can be determined by integrated value of equation (11) at Twb, and the ow rates L and G. The tower characteristic hmass A=L
design condition. This value is based on the equipments design can then be plotted against varying (L/G) ratio, and this gives
requirements or is a measure of the difculty of the task [8]. In a measure of the ability of the tower to effect the transfer such as
cooling tower design practice, it is referred to as an accepted shown in Fig. 2.
concept of cooling tower performance [1,2]. For the given cooling
tower, its value depends on the ratio of water-to-air loading (L/G). 2.2. Cooling demand curves
And the dimensionless variable, (L/G), can be determined from the
known waterow and known air ow. The hmassA/L value of a tower The water temperature and air temperature or enthalpy are
operating at off-design conditions will not be the same as the being changed along the tower and the Merkel relation can only be
applied to a small element of the heat transfer surface. Referring to

Fig. 2. Cooling tower characteristic curve with design point and test point. Fig. 4. Tower demand and characteristic curve.
W. Asvapoositkul, S. Treeutok / Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167 163

the right-hand side of equation (11), (hsw  ha) is the difference


between the enthalpy of saturated air at the water temperatures
and the enthalpy of air temperature at each location in the tower.
This equation is used to calculate thermal demand based on the
design temperatures and selected L/G.
Fig. 3 is an example of a curve, on which the required hmassA/L,
for a given inlet air wet-bulb temperature and range, is plotted
versus L/G with the approach as a parameter. This is known as
a demand curve.
Now, it is possible to superimpose the tower characteristic curve
(Fig. 2) over the demand curve (Fig. 3), the intersect being the
operating point for the tower being considered for the duty such as
shown in Fig. 4.

2.3. Simulation calculation

Cooling towers operate most of the time at conditions different


than their design conditions therefore the data extracted from Fig. 4
would be important information to have for plant thermal opti- Fig. 6. Cooling tower test rig conguration.
mization. For a given cooling tower, its characteristics are described
by equation (12) which (hmassA/L) will remain unchanged as long as
the ratio of water-to-air loading (L/G) is constant. Weather condi- sequence of the calculation is shown by the ow diagram in Fig. 5.
tions, particularly ambient wet-bulb temperature, will affect the Starting with trial values of Appr for an ambient Twb and R, the
range and the approach of the cooling tower. The cooling water value of (hmassA/L) can be obtained from equations (11) and (12). In
temperatures relate to the range and the approach, as follows. practice, the equations are solved iteratively with the updated
values of Appr until the specied hmassA/L from equation (12) is
Tw;i Tw;o R (13) satised.

Tw;o Twb Appr (14) 2.4. Modications


A procedure for simulating the performance of a cooling tower
is the simultaneous solution of equations (11) and (12). The The calculating of hmassA/L is computed using either equation
(11) or (12) which is obtained once L/G is determined. A charac-
teristic point is experimentally determined by rst measuring an
ambient dry bulb and wet-bulb temperatures, air discharge dry
bulb and wet-bulb temperatures, and cooling water inlet and outlet
temperatures. The L/G ratio is then calculated as follows;
 
L ha;o  ha;i  hw;o ua;o  ua;i

G hw;i  hw;o
 
ha;o  ha;i  hw;o ua;o  ua;i
 (15)
cp;w Tw;i  Tw;o

Once the value of L/G is known, the procedure for calculating


hmassA/L is computed using the enthalpy values at the measured
temperatures. This provides the evaluation of tower characteristics
(hmassA/L) on the basis of the true L/G.
If the effect of evaporation is ignored, equation (15) may be
written as
 
L ha;o  ha;i ha;o  ha;i
  (16)
G hw;i  hw;o cp;w Tw;i  Tw;o

Table 1
Cooling tower design condition.

Design condition
Water loading 60 L/min-m2

Hot water temp. (Tw,i) 38.5 C

Cold water temp. (Tw,o) 33.5 C

Inlet wet-bulb temp. (Twb,i) 29 C

Inlet dry bulb temp. (Tdb,i) 36 C
Total fan driver power 185 w
Barometric press. 1.0013 bar
Liquid to gas ratio (L/G)d 1.163
Fig. 5. Flow diagram for the cooling tower simulation calculation.
164 W. Asvapoositkul, S. Treeutok / Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167

Table 2 33.0
Specications of the measuring devices.

Measurement Instrument Accuracy Resolution


+2%
32.5
Water ow rate Rotameter 2% 5 L/min
Water temp. RTD temperature probe 2% 0.1  C

Twb,o predicted ( oC )
Ambient wet/dry Temp. RTD temperature probe 0.8  C 0.1  C
Inlet/outlet air velocity Vane Anemometer 2% 0.1 m/s 32.0
Fan power Multi-meter 2% 1 V, 0.1 A

It may be assumed that the air discharge is saturated. There- 31.5

fore, the air discharge is at its wet-bulb. This is based on Merkel -2%
Model.
31.0
The CTI code determines the test value of (L/G)t from the average
water ow rate and fan driver output power at the time of test. Its
value is calculated from [1]:
30.5
      1  1   30.5 31.0 31.5 32.0 32.5 33.0
L L Lt P d 3 rt 3 wt Twb,o exper. ( oC )
(17)
G t G d Ld Pt rd wd
Fig. 8. Comparison of wet-bulb temp. at cooling tower exit between the experiment
data and the predicted value from equation (16).
3. Experiments

a rotameter. A 70 kW gas burner supplied the heat load to the


3.1. Apparatus
circulated water. The water was then delivered to an insulated tank
where its temperature was maintained at a constant value during
The experiment was performed in the induced draft counter
testing with two supplemental electrical heaters each of 9 kW.
ow cooling tower test rig (see Fig. 6). The tower was made of
Induced air was circulated counter ow by an axial ow fan. The
standard industrial cooling tower equipment and material with one
fan speed could be varied by variable frequency drives. Air velocity
exception e one side of its walls was made of clear high strength
was measured by a vane anemometer. Inlet and exit air wet and dry
polycarbonate material that allowed direct observation of the drift
bulb temperatures were measured with a Resistance Temperature
eliminator, the ll under test, the spray pattern of the nozzle and
Detector (RTD) temperature probe which calibrated to mercury-in-
the interaction of the air and water. The towers inside dimensions
glass thermometers.
were 1000 mm  1000 mm with a total height of 3350 mm and
The specications of the measuring devices are shown in
could accommodate up to 1500 mm of ll. Design conditions for the
Table 2. And the test rig schematic is shown in Fig. 7.
tower are summarized in Table 1.
The spray nozzle was attached to a movable frame that enabled
accurate placement of the nozzle spray, which allowed for full spray 3.2. Procedure
coverage of the ll under test. The test sections rain zone (falling
water below the ll) was adjusted to 400 mm for all tests. In this experiment, the inlet hot water temperature of the tower
Water was circulated by a centrifugal pump. The ow was varied was kept constant while the ows of water and air were varied. The
manually by means of a ow control valve and measured by tower test was conducted in accordance with the Cooling

Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of cooling tower test facility.


W. Asvapoositkul, S. Treeutok / Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167 165

8 +5%CAPACITY
100%CAPACITY
7 -5%CAPACITY

Range ( oC )
6

3
18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
wet-bulbe temp. ( oC )
Fig. 9. Comparison of L/G between the experiment data and the predicted value from
Fig. 11. Cooling tower evaluations at inlet water temp. of 38.5  C.
test values of discharged air properties (TDA), test values of discharged air properties
without evaporation (TWE) and test fan driver output power (TFD).

4. Application and comparison with Merkel model


Technology Institute (CTI) Acceptance Test Code for Water-Cooling
Towers ATC-105 [1]. To calculate tower characteristics (hmassA/L) from the Merkel
According to the experiments testing data were Tw,i 38.5  C equation, it is necessary to know the air wet-bulb temperature at
and L/G was 0.90, 1.06, 1.10, 1.14, 1.2 and 1.24. The ll of 600 mm the inlet, hmassA/L, and the water temperature at the inlet and the
height was chosen for the experiments. The test was conducted exit. The enthalpy of air at the exit is approximated from equa-
within the following variations from the test conditions. Circulating tion (16) where saturated air at the inlet and the exit as well as
water ow, heat load and range were not varied by more than 2%. no water evaporation are assumed. The saturated air temperature
Instantaneous air temperature readings uctuated during the test, at the exit can be determined easily from a Psychometric chart or
but variations in average readings during the test period did not from a computer program [1]. Fig. 8 shows the comparison of the
exceed 1  C per hour for wet and dry bulb temperatures. experimental and numerical values of discharged air wet-bulb
After reaching steady state conditions, the inlet and exit water temperature Twb,o. It can be seen that the outlet wet-bulb
temperature was taken at every 5-min interval. A total of 12 temperatures from the experimental and predicted values are
readings were taken, and then an average was calculated. Inlet and in good agreement. The maximum errors were found to be less
exit air wet and dry bulb temperatures were measured at the center than 2%.
of each side of the louvers and that of the fan stack exit. A reading If the properties of air at the inlet and the exit are known, the
was taken every 5-min, and then the average was computed. The effect of evaporation and the true air properties can be used to
water ow rate was measured at every 20-min interval. A total of 3 calculated the ratio of water-to-air loading (L/G) from equation (15).
readings were taken and then the average was computed. Fan The values of L/G base on equations (15)e(17) were calculated and
power consumption was measured by using a multi-meter. A compared with that of experimental data as shown in Fig. 9. It
reading was taken at every 30-min interval. A total of 2 readings should be noted that the result from equation (15) were
were taken and then the average was computed.

Fig. 10. Comparison of hmassA/L calculated from experiment data L/G and predicted L/G
from test values of discharged air properties (TDA), test values of discharged air
properties without evaporation (TWE) and test fan driver output power (TFD). Fig. 12. Predicted inlet water temp. at 29  C entering wet-bulb temp. and 60% RH.
166 W. Asvapoositkul, S. Treeutok / Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167

Fig. 13. Predicted inlet water temp. for 105% of design water circulation. Fig. 15. Predicted inlet water temp. for 95% of design water circulation.

determined from test values of discharged air properties (TDA) (12). The values of n and c were found to be 0.531 and 0.764,
while that from equation (16) were determined from test values of respectively.
discharged air properties without evaporation (TWE) and that from
equation (17) were determined from test fan driver output power
5. Evaluation of tower performance
(TFD). The linear regression (r2) of the predicted values was ranked
in ascending order as follows: TWE, TFD and TDA with the values of
In evaluating cooling tower thermal capacity, the design
0.657, 0.893 and 0.936, respectively.
conditions of the tower must be available (either from the manu-
Fig. 10 presented the calculated values of tower characteristics
facturer or test data). In this illustration, the tower characteristic is
(hmassA/L) obtained with L/G from experiments, TDA, TWE and TFD.
shown in Fig. 2. Its operating characteristics were predicted as
The difference among the data indicated the inuence of L/G where
described in section 2.3.
result from TDA showed excellent agreement with hmassA/L ob-
With properly selected demand curves (preferably with given
tained from the experiment value of L/G. The linear regression (r2)
constant inlet water temperature) and subject to certain L/G (pref-
of the predicted values from TDA, TFD and TWE was 0.980, 0.974
erably with given tower capacity 5%) the method could be
and 0.876, respectively. The deviation was less than 2% therefore
employed to meet a wide range of service requirements. Fig. 11
the methods were understood to be suitable since percent errors of
illustrates evaluation cooling tower capacity curves for inlet water
about 5%e10% always go with the heat balance in performance
temperature, Tw,i 38.5  C; this could be expanded to other inlet
tests [3].
water temperature if desired. Therefore, the operator of such a cooling
The values from TDA were plotted for the tower characteristic
tower can determine the tower capability from the graph as shown in
curve, shown in Fig. 2, at the design condition of Twb 29  C,
Fig. 11. In considering other inlet water temperature with varying Twb
and L/G 1.163. The line was t to the model given in equation
at water ow rate of 5% of the design ow rate, see Figs. 12e15.
The cooling tower capacity illustration in Fig. 11 was based on the
assumption that the test conditions of the water ow rate and inlet
water temperature were near design conditions. The method has an
advantage in that neither the measurement of air ow rate nor the
calculation of hmassA/L was required. This method was proposed by
Fujita and Tezuka [3]. For practical use, inlet water temperatures are
within 2  C, water ow rates are within 5% and inlet wet-bulb
temperatures are within 3  C/-17  C from the design conditions [3].

6. Conclusions

A calculation method for predicting the behavior of induced


draft wet cooling tower has been developed, with a new method
that included water evaporation and unsaturated air leaving the
tower. In the case where those two conditions are ignored
(TWE), the maximum error from the predicted outlet wet-bulb
temperatures was less than 2%. While those two conditions
were considered (TDA), the predicted values of (L/G) were found
to be best suited with those from the experiment with the linear
regression (r2) of 0.936. The other predicted values of (L/G) were
determined from the test fan driver output power (TFD) that
Fig. 14. Predicted inlet water temp. at design water circulation. gave r2 of 0.893 and those from TWE that gave r2 of 0.657. Hence
W. Asvapoositkul, S. Treeutok / Applied Thermal Engineering 38 (2012) 160e167 167

the results of the calculated values of tower characteristics References


(hmassA/L) where the r2 of the predicted values from TDA, TFD
and TWE were 0.980, 0.974 and 0.876, respectively. [1] Cooling Technology Institute, Acceptance Test Code for Water-Cooling Towers
ATC-105, Cooling Technology Institute, Houston, TX, 2000.
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test data of the cooling tower, the prediction operating conditions Equipment PTC 23-2003, ASME, New York, 2003.
can be presented in simple formats. The method is also applied to [3] T. Fujita, S. Tezuka, Calculations on thermal performance capability of mechanical
draft cooling towers, Bulletin of JSEM 27 (225) (1984) 490e497.
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mance of a mechanical cooling tower with different drift eliminators, Energy
of hmassA/L. Subsequently, the results can be used to determine or Conversion and Management 50 (2009) 490e497.
optimize counter ow wet cooling tower design for a given set of [6] J.C. Kloppers, D.G. Krger, Cooling tower performance evaluation: Merkel,
operating conditions. Poppe, and e-NTU methods of analysis, Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbine
and Power 127/1 (2005).
[7] D.R. Baker, H.A. Shryock, A comprehensive approach to the analysis of cooling
Acknowledgements tower performance, Journal of Heat Transfer ASME Technical Bulletin (August
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[8] Stephen A. Leeper, Wet Cooling Tower: Rule-of-Thumb Design and Simulation,
This research has been supported by the Thailand Research Fund
U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Resource Application, 1981,
through the MAG Window I Program (Grant No. MRG-WI525E078), Ofce of Geothermal, under DOE Contract No. DE-AC07e76ID01570.
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