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1.0 ABSTRACT
This experiment was conducted to perform energy and mass balance on the cooling
tower system and to observe the effects of one of the process variables on the exit
temperature of water. For water cooling tower experiment, there are several parameters that
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can be adjusted to observe its effects on the evaporation of water. The parameters are
temperature and flow rate of water, relative humidity and flow rate of air and cooling load. In
this experiment, we choose the cooling load as variable while water flow rate and flow rate as
constant parameters. The steady flow equations which is energy and mass balances were
employed in order to provide an insight on the amount of energy transferred between phases
under different conditions. The energy transfer calculated from the experiment for cooling
load of 0kW, 0.5kW, 1.0kW and 1.5kW are 0.0175kJ/s, 0.0143kJ/s, 0.107kJ/s and 0.325kJ/s
respectively.
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2.0 INTRODUCTION
In this experiment, SOLTEQ Water Cooling Tower (Model: HE 152) has been used. This
model has been designed to allow engineering students to get familiarized with all the
processes related to industrial force draught cooling tower. The construction, design and
operational characteristic of this model are as same as the modern cooling system, only it is
in much smaller scale. The basic unit can be used with another four types of packing column
(optional) which were designed to facilitate study of water and air conditions at different
situation. The difference is mainly on the surface contact area of the water with the air in
different column and also the objective of the experiment.
SOLTEQ Water Cooling Tower (Model: HE 152) is supplied with a packed column having
packing density of approximately 110 m2/m3. The unit mainly consists of a load tank with a
total of 1.5 kW electric heater, an air distribution chamber, a make-up tank and a test column.
Warm water is pumped from the load tanks to the top of the column before being uniformly
distributed over the top packing. The thin film of water is cooled, as it passes downward, due
to evaporation. The cooled water falls into the basin before going back into the load tank
where it is re-heated and re-circulated. The load tank water level is maintained by means of a
make-up tank. A blower is installed on the unit to deliver air into the air distribution chamber.
The air passes a wet and dry bulb thermometer before entering the column. As the air passes
up the column, its moisture content increases and the water is cooled. At the top of the
column, the air passes a mist eliminator before being discharged to the atmosphere.
Once energy and mass balances are done, students will then be able to determine the effects
on the performance of the cooling tower by the following parameters:
c) Cooling load
3.0 OBJECTIVES
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The objectives of this experiment are:
4.0 THEORY
Basic Principle
First consider an air stream passing over the surface of a warm water droplet or film. If we
assume that the water is hotter than the air, then the water temperature will be cooled down
by radiation, conduction and convection, and evaporation. The radiation effect is normally
very small and may be neglected. Convection and conduction depend on the temperature
difference, the surface area, air velocity, etc. the effect of evaporation is the most significant
where cooling takes place as water molecules diffuse from the surface into the surrounding
air. During the evaporation process, the water molecules are replaced by others in a liquid
form which the energy required is taken.
When considering evaporation from a wet surface into the surrounding air, the rate is
determined by the difference between the vapour pressure at the liquid surface and the vapour
pressure in the surrounding air. The vapour pressure at the liquid surface is basically the
saturation pressure corresponding with the surface temperature, whereas the total pressure of
the air and its absolute humidity determines the vapour pressure in the surrounding air. Such
evaporation process in an enclosed space shall continue until the two vapour pressure are
equal. In other words, until the air is saturated and its temperature equals the surface.
However, if unsaturated air is constantly supplied, the wet surface will reach an equilibrium
temperature at which the cooling effect due to the evaporation equals the heat transfer to the
liquid by conduction and convection from the air, which under these conditions; will be at a
higher temperature. Under adiabatic conditions, this equilibrium temperature is the “wet bulb
temperature”.
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For a cooling tower of infinite size and with adequate air flow, the water leaving will be at
wet bulb temperature of the incoming air. Therefore, the difference between the temperature
of the water leaving a cooling tower and the local wet bulb temperature is an indication of
effectiveness of the cooling tower, is the difference between the temperature of water leaving
the tower and the wet bulb temperature of the entering air.
A study on the performance of a cooling tower can be done with the help of a bench top unit.
Students shall be able to verify the effect of these factors on the cooling tower performance:
The effects of these factors will be studied in depth by varying it. In this way, students will
gain and overall view of the operation of the cooling tower.
Thermodynamic Property
In order to understand the working principle and performance of a cooling tower, a basic
knowledge of thermodynamic is essential to all students. A brief review on some of the
thermodynamic properties is presented below.
At the triple point (i.e. 0.00602 atm and 0.01oC), the specific enthalpy of saturated water is
assumed to be zero, which is taken as datum. The specific enthalpy of saturated water (h f) at a
range of temperature above the datum conditions can be obtained from thermodynamic
tables.
(1)
The correction for pressure is negligible for the operating condition of the cooling tower,
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Specific heat capacity (Cp) is defined as the rate of change of the enthalpy with respect to
temperature (often called the specific heat transfer at constant pressure). For the purpose of
the experiment using bench top cooling water, we may use the following relationship:
(2)
and
(3)
It is commonly known that air consists of a mixture of “dry air” (O 2 , N2 and other gases) and
water vapour. Dalton and Gibbs law describes the behaviour of such mixtures as:
a) The total pressure of the air is equal to the sum of then pressures at which the “dry
air” and the water vapour each and alone would exert if they were to occupy the
volume of the mixture at the temperature of the mixture.
b) The dry air and the water vapour respectively obey their normal property relationships
at their partial pressures.
c) The enthalpy of the mixture may be found by adding together the enthalpies at which
the dry air and water vapour each would have as the sole occupant of the space
occupied by the mixture and at the same temperature.
(4)
(5)
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(6)
At high humidity conditions, it can be shown that there is not much difference between the
“Relative Humidity” and the “Percentage Saturation” and thus we shall regard the same.
To measure the moisture content of the atmosphere, this bench top cooling tower unit is
supplied with electronic dry bulb and wet bulb temperature sensors. The temperature readings
shall be used in conjunction with a psychometric chart.
Psychometric Chart
The psychometric chart is very useful in in determining the properties of air/water vapour
mixture. Among the properties that can be defined with psychometric chart are Dry Bulb
Temperature, Wet Bulb Temperature, Relative Humidity, Humidity Ratio, Specific Volume
and Specific Enthalpy. Knowing two of these properties, any other properties can be easily
identified from the chart provided the air pressure is approximately atmospheric.
In the Bench Top Cooling Tower application, the air inlet and outlet sensor show the dry bulb
temperature and wet bulb temperature. Therefore, the specific enthalpy, specific volume,
humidity ratio and relative humidity can be readily read from the psychometric chart.
Orifice Calibration
As mentioned above, the psychometric chart can be used to determine the value of the
specific volume. However the values given in the chart are for 1 kg of dry air at the stated
total pressure.
However, for every 1 kg of dry air, there is w kg of water vapour, yielding the total mass of
1+w kg.
Therefore, the actual specific volume of the air/vapour mixture is given by:
(7)
The mass flow rate of air and steam mixture through the orifice is given by
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(8)
Where,
Thus,
(9)
(10)
A simplification can be made since in this application, the value of ω is unlikely to exceed
Consider System A for the cooling tower defined as in Figure 2. It can be seen that for this
system, indicated by the dotted line,
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a) Heat transfer at the load tank and possibly a small quantity to surroundings.
b) Work transfer at the pump.
c) Low humidity air enters at point A.
d) High humidity air leaves at point B.
e) Make-up enters at point E, the same amount as the moisture increase in the air stream.
(11)
If the enthalpy of the air includes the enthalpy of the steam associated with it, and this
quantity is in terms of per unit mass of dry air, the equation may then be written as:
(12)
Note:
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a) The mass flow rate of the air through a cooling tower is a constant, whereas the
mass flow rate of moist air increases as the result of evaporation process.
b) The term can usually be neglected since its value is relatively small.
Under steady state conditions, by conservation of mass flow rate of dry air and of water (as
liquid or vapour) must be the same at inlet and outlet to any system.
Therefore,
(13)
and
or
(14)
The ratio of steam to air (ω) is known for the initial and final state points on the psychometric
charts. Therefore,
and (15)
(16)
Therefore,
(17)
Say, we redefine the cooling tower system where the process heat and pump work does not
cross the boundary of the system. In this case warm water enters the system at point C and
cool water leaves at point D.
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Again from steady flow energy equation,
and
P=0
may have a small value due to heat transfer between the unit and its surroundings.
(18)
Rearranging,
(19)
(20)
where
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T = Water temperature
K = Mass transfer coefficient
a = Area of contact between air and water per unit volume of packing
V = Volume occupied by packing per unit plan area
∆h = Difference in specific enthalpy, between the saturated boundary layer and the bulk
air
In this equation, we assume that the boundary layer temperature is equal to the water
temperature T and the small change in the mass of water is neglected.
Thus, from equation 20,
(21)
(22)
The numerical solution to the integral expression upper equation using Chebyshev numerical
method gives,
(23)
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Where
Thermodynamics state that the heat removed from the water must be equal to the heat
absorbed by the surrounding air. Therefore, the following equation is derived:
L(T2-T1)=G(ha2-ha1) (24)
or,
(25)
Where,
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The following represents a key to figure 5:
BA = Initial enthalpy driving force
AD = Air operating line with slope L/G
Referring to equation 22, the tower characteristics could be found by finding the area
between ABCD in figure 5. Increasing heat load would have the following effects on the
diagram in Figure 5:
1. Increase in the length of line CD, and a CD line shift to the right
2. Increase in hot and cold water temperatures
3. Increase in range and approach areas
The increased heat load causes the hot water temperature to increase considerably faster than
does the cold temperature. Although the area ABCD should remain constant, it
actually decreases about 2% for every 10 °F increase in hot water temperature above 100°F.
To account for this decrease, an “adjusted hot water temperature” is used in cooling tower
design.
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5.0 APPARATUS AND MATERIALS
SOLTEQ Bench Top Cooling Tower Unit (Model: HE152)
1. Orifice
2. Water Distributor
3. Packing Column
4. Flow Meter
5. Receiver Tank
6. Air Blower
7. Make-up Tank
8. Differential Pressure Transmitter
9. Load Tank
10. Control Panel
Stopwatch
Deionised water
6.0 PROCEDURES
DESCRIPTION UNIT
0 0.5 1.0 1.5
TRIAL 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
o
Air Inlet Dry Bulb, T1 C 29.1 28.9 28.7 28.7 29.2 29.2 29.4 29.5
o
Air Inlet Wet Bulb, T2 C 26.8 26.6 26.4 26.2 26.3 26.2 26.1 26.3
o
Air Outlet Dry Bulb, C 28.2 26.2 26.9 27.5 29.3 30.6 33.0 34.3
T3
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o
Air Outlet Wet Bulb, C 28.0 27.0 26.7 26.9 27.9 29.3 31.2 32.9
T4
o
Water Inlet C 31.5 28.4 30.8 31.9 35.3 37.2 41.8 43.3
Temperature, T5
o
Water Outlet C 29.4 27.0 28.1 28.6 30.8 31.9 34.4 35.5
Temperature, T6
Orifice Differential Pa 5 5 5 6 5 5 5 5
DP1
Overall dimension:
Height: 1.25 m
Width: 0.91 m
Depth: 0.45 m
By taking the data obtained when 0% air flow fully closed and 0% heater power:
First trial
Specific volume of air at outlet (by plotting air outlet dry bulb and air outlet wet bulb on the
Psychometric Chart) = 0.853 m3kg-1
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Air mass flow rate =
ṁ=
= 0.0106 kgs-1
= 0.0106 x 0.853
= 0.00904 m3s-1
= 0.0225 m2
Air Velocity =
= 0.4018 ms-1
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of air at outlet
X mm 0.51 0.51 0.51 0.612 0.51 0.51 0.51 0.51
H2O
ṁ kg/s 0.0106 0.0106 0.0106 0.0116 0.0106 0.01056 0.01052 0.0105
m3/s 0.00904 0.00902 0.00902 0.00989 0.00947 0.00907 0.0091 0.00913
Cross sectional m2 0.0225
area
Air velocity m/s 0.4018 0.4089 0.4089 0.439 0.402 0.403 0.405 0.406
L2 L1 G * ( H 2 H 1 )
* Energy balance:
Q G * (H Y 2 H Y1 )
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HY1 = (1.005 + 1.88*0.022)*(26.7) + 2501.4*0.022
L2 L1 G * ( H 2 H 1 )
* Energy balance:
Q G * (HY 2 HY1)
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HY1 = (1.005 + 1.88*0.022)*(26.3) + 2501.4*0.022
L2 L1 G * ( H 2 H 1 )
* Energy balance:
Q G * (HY 2 HY1)
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HY1 = 82.498 KJ/kg air
L2 L1 G * ( H 2 H 1 )
* Energy balance:
Q G * (HY 2 HY1)
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HY1 = 81.68 KJ/kg air
8.0 DISCUSSION
SOLTEQ Water Cooling Tower (Model: HE 152) is used to run this experiment. This
experiment is conducted to study the effects of variables changes on the temperature of the
product (water). There are three variables that will affect the water temperature which are
heater power, water flow rate, and the blower. For this experiment we only focused on the
heater power as the changing variable, meanwhile the water flow rate and the blower were set
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as constant. For every change in heater power energy, the time interval for the process to
occur is 10 minutes. This is to ensure that the system is in steady state operation.
In the cooling tower, water is cooled by the process known as evaporation. In the
process, heat energy is being transferred between the water and air which having different
temperature. As the energy in the water molecules is transfer to the air flowing through the
water, the bond of the water molecules becomes weaker then it will slowly evaporate to the
air. It can be prove from the result of this experiment, whereby the water outlet temperature is
lower than the inlet. For example: Water outlet = 35.5 , Water inlet = 43.3 . The tower
inner structure is filled with “fill” that is arranged in the form of labyrinth. The fill is used in
order to increase the time contact of the water and the air flowing in the system.
From the data obtained at the end of the experiment, changes in heater power will
affect the energy being transferred within the system and surrounding. Larger heater power
will cause higher temperature in water. As for this experiment, the temperature of the water is
assumed higher than the air flowing through the system (without considering the changes in
heater power). As the difference in the temperature between the water and air increase, the
heat energy being transferred rate is therefore higher than the lowered heater power. It can be
proved by the data obtained where for 0kW heater power, the heat energy transferred rate is
0.0175kJ/s, then followed by 0.5kW (0.0143kJ/s), 1.0kW (0.107kJ/s), 1.5kW (0.325kJ/s).
Therefore, it can be said that heater power is directly proportional to heat energy transfer rate.
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9.0 CONCLUSION
This experiment is conducted to study the effects of heater power on the exit
temperature of water and to perform energy and mass balance on the cooling tower system.
From the data obtained, we have calculated that the rate of heat energy transferred for 0kW
heater power is 0.0175kJ/s, then followed by 0.5kW (0.0143kJ/s), 1.0kW (0.107kJ/s), 1.5kW
(0.325kJ/s). As the difference in temperature between the water and air increase, the rate of
heat energy being transferred is higher than the lowered heater power. Therefore, it can be
said that heater power is directly proportional to heat energy transfer rate. Hence, this
experiment has been a success since the objectives of the experiment were achieved and we
have gained knowledge regarding to the water cooling tower operation.
10.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
There are several recommendations that can be deduced from this experiment to
improve the results of this experiment. The water that can be used in the unit only deionised
water or distilled water. When using tap water in the system, the impurities that exist in the
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tap water may cause the depositing in the cover tower and thus lower the efficiency of the
cooling tower.
When installing the cooling tower column or make-up tank, make sure that the nuts
were not tighten too hard because it may cause crack. Also not too tight lightly which can
cause spilling of water out from the column.
Other than that, ensure that the pressure tubings for differential pressure measurement
are connected correctly which orifice pressure tapping point to V4, column’s lower pressure
tapping to V6, column’s higher pressure tapping point to V3 and V5 leave to atmosphere.
Also, make sure that there is no water in the pressure tubing for accurate differential pressure
measurement.
Besides that, after completed the experiment, ensure that that the water inside the
tower was cooled down first before draining it off because if water still hot when draining off
the water, the unit’s efficiency will decreased.
11.0 REFERENCES
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2. Frank P. Incropera, David P. Dewitt, Theodore L. Bergman, Adrienne S. Lavine.
2007. Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, 6th Ed. John Wiley & Sons (Asia)
Pte Ltd.
12.0 APPENDICES
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2. The Psychometric Chart
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