COOLING TOWER

Usually exposing the water surface to the air cools the water. The air may be force circulation or water is exposed to the atm. Air (Like cooling pounds). In cooling tower the air is generally forced circulation and water is spry in the tower to get more surface area of water in contact with air. The heat transfer process involves a. Latent heat transfer - Due to evaporation of a small portion of water. b. Sensible heat transfer- Due to the temperature difference of air and Cooling water. Approximately 80 % of heat transfer is due to the latent heat and 20 % due to sensible heat. Heat to be rejected (Kw) X 860 Cooling water flow rate = -----------------------------------------1000 X delta T across the (Assumed) Type of cooling tower. There are two type of cooling towers. a. Mechanical draft cooling tower. b. Natural draft cooling tower. The Mechanical draft cooling towers are further divided in to two types a. Induced draft cooling towers b. Forced draft cooling towers. In forced draft cooling towers the air is forced in to the cooling tower and humid air is exhausted at low velocity form top of the cooling tower. In this type of cooling towers the re-circulation of humid air is more and wet bulb temperature of the air entering cooling tower is higher than the ambient wet bulb temperature. The higher wet bulb temperature of the air entering to the cooling tower will affect the performance of tower. Corrosion of motor and fan will be less since fan is out side the worm and humid air. The motor and fan is running almost at ambient air temperature. In induced draft cooling towers the air is suck from the cooling tower and exhausted in the atmosphere. In this type of cooling tower there is less amount of humid air re-circulation hence the entering air wet bulb temperature is almost same as that of ambient air wet bulb temperature.

equipment.

The performance of the induced draft-cooling tower is better than the forced draft-cooling tower since the tower is operating at lower wet bulb temperature. The maintenance of fan and motor is high as compare to the forced draft-cooling tower since motor and fan is exposed to the worm and humid air. The induced draft cooling towers are generally counter flow arrangement. The counter flow arrangement is more efficient since the coldest air in contact with the coldest water thus obtaining the maximum enthalpy potential difference. In natural draft cooling tower the water is spry in the form of fine spray to get the more surface are in contact with the air. The fine water droplets exchange the heat with surrounding air due to the temperature difference and air will be got worm. There is no forced circulation of air and air movement will be due to the temperature difference of the air. The cold air will be at the bottom of the cooling tower and hot air will be move upward. These types of cooling towers are parallel flow cooling towers and there effectiveness is less compare to the counter flow cooling towers. Cooling water operation In mechanical draft cooling tower there is three types of losses Evaporation loss ( We ) Drift loss( Wd) Blowdown loss (Wb) During the operation of cooling tower there is a evaporation of water called the loss of water due to evaporation. The evaporation loss is @ 1 % of total circulating cooling water in the system. Due to the evaporation of cooling water the concentration of the dissolved solids is increased in the water which will leads the problem of scale formation in the heat exchange area. The blow down is required to drain out the concentrated water and same amount of fresh water is required to be added in the system to dilute the concentration of dissolved solids and amount of water required will be depends upon the concentration cycle. The evaporation loss can be determined form the following equation We = 0.00085 Wc (T1-T2) 1.8 Wc - Circulating water flow in M3/hr. T1-T2 Temperature difference between inlet and outlet in C The Blowdown loss can be calculated according to the number of concentration cycles required to limit the scale formation. Cycle of concentration is the ratio of total dissolved solids in the recirculating water and total dissolved solids in the make up water. We + Wb Cycle of concentration = --------------Wb

We ---------------(Cycles-1) The drift loss is defined as, the small droplets of the water, which are carried over by the air. In cooling towers there is a drift eliminators, which restricts the small droplets to carry over with the air. This will minimize the drift loss to @ 0.1 to 0.25 % of total circulating water. Wb = During the operation of mechanical draft cooling tower to anticipate the above the loss there should be some water to be added in the system called makeup water. The make up water required for the mechanical draft-cooling tower is W m = We + Wd + Wb Fan Horsepower The fan horsepower is evaluating the operation and equipment cost of the cooling tower. The large amount of air is handled through the cooling tower at an exit velocity of 10.2 Mtr/Sec., maximum in the induced draftcooling tower. The amount of air circulation depends upon the type of fills, tower configuration and thermal performance conditions. The effective horsepower of the fan is static air horsepower (SAHP), which is, obtained from the following equation. Q h d SAHP = ----------------33000 (12) Q - Air volume Ft3/min. h - Static head in of water column d - Density of water at ambient temperature. Pumping horsepower The total head on the cooling tower is the static head and pressure drop in the spry nozzles. If the flow is by gravity than static head on the pump is reduces and required horsepower will be reduces. The break horsepower required for the cooling tower pump is directly proportion to the total head and flow rate of the cooling water. The break horsepower can be calculated form the following equation. Q Ht Pump BHP = -----------3960

Q water flow rate in gal./min. Ht Total head in Ft. Pump efficiency The design of the cooling towers is affecting the horsepower of the pump. The ideal cooling tower spray nozzles should be selected carefully for less pressure drop and uniform distribution of water. Especially the pattern of the cooling tower nozzles should be solid square cone instead of traditional solid circular cone. with solid square cone the overlapping of the two different spray can be avoided and water distribution is uniform. Where as in solid circular cone the overlapping of the nozzle is required to avoid the bypass of air. Range of cooling tower: The temperature difference between the inlet and outlet temperature of cooling water to the tower is called rage of the cooling tower. Entering wet bulb temperature The wet bulb temperature of the air is the indication of moisture content in the air. The heat can be removed per lb. of air circulated in the cooling tower depends on the temperature and moisture content of the air. The wet bulb temperature is the lowest theoretical temperature to which water can be cooled. Approach of cooling tower The approach of the cooling tower is defined as the difference between the wet bulb temperature and cold-water temperature. The Cold water temperatures approaches to the wet bulb temperature but does not reach to the wet bulb temperature, because some driving force is required for the heat exchange which is the temperature difference between the cold water temperature and wet bulb temperature. The cooling tower approach is depends upon the air to water ration and its contact time. The cooling tower size is depends upon the approach. Size of the cooling tower will totally uneconomical for approach less than 2C. The size of the cooling tower will be increases with decrease in the cooling tower approach. Water loading of cooling tower Water loading of cooling tower is defined as the quantity of recirculating water per sq. Ft. of ground area of cooling tower. It has been found that

maximum performance of the cooling tower is obtained with water loading capacity 2 to 5 gal/min Sqft. of ground area of the cooling tower. With increase in the water loading of cooling tower will increase the approach and decrease the range of cooling tower. The performance of the cooling tower will be decrease with increase in the water loading of the co9oling tower. L/G ration (Liquid to gas ration) L/G ration is defined as the ration of weight of water to weight of air. The performance of the cooling is governed by the L/G ration. Lower the cold water temperature or Approach with lower the L/G. ration. To get the lower approach of cooling tower the quantity of air should be increase with respect to the quantity of recirculating water flow i.e. the L/G ration is lower. The power consumption of the cooling tower fan will be increases with increase in air quantity for a given cooling tower. Contact time Contact time is defined as the time required for the water to discharge form the nozzle and fall through the tower to basin. The performance of the cooling tower is governed by the time of contact between the water to air. The more the time of contact lower the cold-water temperature or lesser the cooling tower approach. The contact time can be very by increasing or decreasing the tower fill height and height of the cooling towers itself. The thumb rules of the cooling tower Cooling tower approach: The slandered cooling tower approach will be 2C, the design of the cooling tower becomes totally uneconomical below the 2C approach. Range of cooling tower: The range of the cooling tower should be equal to the temperature rise in the process. Generally the cooling tower is designed for the 5C temperature range. Water loading The cooling towers are design with water loading of 2 to 5 gal/min Sqft. The performance of the cooling tower will be optimum for the above water loading value.

Contact time The contact time in the cooling tower should be 4 to 7 sec. L/G ration. Generally the mechanical draft cooling towers is design with L/G ration ranging from 0.75 to 1.5. Accordingly the value of KaV/L very from 0.5 to 2.5 KaV/L mass Transfer coefficient group. Fan Horsepower The Fan horsepower is depends upon the ground area of cooling tower. The Standard ration of fan horsepower to ground area of cooling tower is 0.041Hp/Sqft. Cycle of concentration For cooling tower the cycle of concentration should be 5 to 7 Cycles. Exit air velocity The maximum air exit velocity of cooling tower should be 10.2 m/sec., which will minimize the recalculation of the cooling tower.

Energy management in cooling tower The energy management of the cooling tower includes the control of input energy to the cooling tower as, 1. Fan Horsepower. 2. Pumping Horsepower. 3. Water Consumption. The effective horsepower of the fan is static air horsepower (SAHP), which is, obtained from the following equation. Q h d SAHP = ----------------33000 (12)

Q - Air volume Ft3/min. h - Static head in of water column d - Density of water at ambient temperature. Hence the Power consumption of the fan will depends upon the Q, h and d a) Due to the chocking of cooling tower fin the air flow of air will going to increase the pressure drop across the cooling tower and power consumption will be increase and L/G ration maintain the same. b) When the ambient wet bulb temperature decreases in winter and monsoon season for the given cooling tower, the cold water temperature is lower than the required cold water temperature. In such case the cooling tower fan speed will be reduced to maintain the required cold water temperature. The speed of the fan can be reduce by providing the variable frequency drive which will very the speed by sensing the cold water temperature. The frequency of power supply of fan will be decrease with decrease in cold water temperature. c) Maintain the desired L/G ration to optimize the performance of cooling tower. Excess of the air will consume the more horsepower. Pumping horsepower The pump is recalculating the water through the system and multiple users. The cooling water circulation should be stopped whenever the equipment is not in use. When the number of users of cooling water reduces the water requirement reduces accordingly. The pump is running on the constant speed will the same flow rate within design limit of pump head. This will indicates that the pump is giving the excessive flow rate than the demand. The electrical energy can be saved by maintain the required flow rate as per the demand. The power consumption by the pump is directly proportional to the manometer head and flow rate. When the flow rate of the pump less than manometer head increases and power consumption remains within limit. The variable Speed drive can operate the pump to maintain the required flow rate at desired manometer head. The variable frequency drive will take the feedback of the pump pressure and maintain at set limit by varying the speed of the pump we can get the variable flow rate. When the number of user reduces the flow rate required can be lower by reducing the pump Speed and maintaining the constant pump pressure. Power consumption of the pump will be reduces due to lower pump speed and power consumption can be control as per the demand of cooling water flow rate.