COOLING TOWER

HUMIDIFICATION/COOLING TOWER
Saddawi

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.
This can be done by measuring the time needs to spend by added amount of
water to the make-up tank.
Check wet bulb thermocouple reservoir for water. Add if necessary.
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)
Take mass balance over a differential section (see the fig.)

mw mw1 ma (Y Y1' )
dmw madY

Water
Inlet

(1)

T2
H2
mw

Air
outlet

t2
h2
ma

(2)

*Mass velocity of dry air remain constant through the

cooling tower
Take enthalpy balance over the same differential section

mwH mah1' mw1' H1' mah

(3)

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

small amount of water evaporation will produce large
cooling effect.
Therefor we can assume the mass velocity of the
water falling down through the tower is constant with
out large consequences error
Please see equation (4) on page 12

mw(H H1' ) ma (h1' h)

dz

(4)

1
Water
Outlet

T1
H1
mw

t1
h1
ma

Air
Inlet

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

mwCpwdT madh

(5)

Where
m ah ma (Cpair dt 3dY)
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
Cpw
ma

Enthalpy of Air

Slope of (NO) line

h2

h1

O
N
T1

Cooling Tower Operating line

(Air bulk operating line)

T2

Water Temperature

Saturated Air Operating line

Saturated Air
water vapor Film

If you assume that the drops of water

falling through the tower are surrounding
by a thin air film,
* This film must be saturated with water
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
interface between the saturated air film and
water. In other words, the interface temperature
can be assumed to be equal to the bulk water
temperature (Merkel assumption)
T(wart temperature) ti (interface temperature)

Water
bulk at
temp T

Heat movement

By plotting the enthalpies of the saturated airwater 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

Air bulk at temp t

This curve applies to the air film

surrounding the water
It called Water Operating Line
And limited for hot and cold water
temp (T2 and T1)

Air Operating Line or

Tower Operating Line
Represent Air condition
through the column

H2
Enthalp
y

The relation between the temperature and

enthalpy of the saturated air

H3
h2
H1
h3

h1
T1
T3
T2
Water Temperature

Driving Force Diagram

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

mwCpwdT madh
Where

(5)

m adh ma (Cpaitdt wdY)

madh hga(ti t)dz wK ya(Yi Y)dz

By rearrange eq 7
pleas see eq 11&12 on page 17

K ya
dh

dz
(Hi h)
ma
h2

Take integral over entire Tower

(7)

h1

(8)

K ya z
K yaz
dh

dz

(Hi h) ma o
ma

(9)

h2

h1

K ya z
K yaz
dh
Z

dz

(Hi h) ma o
ma
H toG

NtoG = Number of Air

Enthalpy Transfer Units

HtoG = Heights of
Transfer Units

ma
HtoG
K ya

By combing eqs (5 &9)

Merkels Equation
T2

KaV
dT
Cpw
mw
T1 H w ha
H w ha hm
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
hm
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)

1 H1 h1
2 H 2 h2
m H3 h3
hm f m

Characteristic Cooling Tower Equation

KaV
mw
By ploting values of
versus
mw
ma

KaV
mw n
= [ ]
mw
ma

The cooling tower effectiveness .. is defined as the ratio of the

actual energy transfer to the maximum possible energy transfer

Y2 Y1
EMG
Yas Y1

ur

Yas
Y2
Y1

Sa
t

Murphree gas phase stage efficiency

at

io
n

lin

h2 h1

H 2 h1

tas t2 t1
Air Temps