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Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 15291535

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Performance characteristics of the hybrid closed circuit cooling tower

M.M.A. Sarker a,*, E. Kim b, C.G. Moon b, J.I. Yoon b
a
Department of Mathematics, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
b
Department of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineering Pukyong National University, Namgu, Pusan 608-739, Republic of Korea
Received 16 September 2007; received in revised form 17 January 2008; accepted 6 February 2008

Abstract
Experimental study on the hybrid closed circuit cooling tower (HCCCT) has been done having a rated capacity of 136 kW. Bare-type copper
coil having an outer diameter of 15.88 mm has been used in the 1.14 m  2.36 m  3.2 m dimensional tower. Cooling capacity and pressure drop
have been studied with respect to variable air inlet velocities, wet-bulb temperatures, cooling water inlet temperatures and air to cooling water
volume flow rate ratio (G/W ratio). Performance characteristics from the experimental study were found to conform well to the rated ones. The
results are supposed to serve as basic design parameter for the HCCCT.
# 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Wet-bulb temperature; Wet mode operation; Dry mode operation; Cooling capacity

1. Introduction
The use of cooling towers to reject heat, cool buildings and
reduce the temperature of water circulated through various heat
rejection equipments have increased considerably [1,2].
Basically, there are two types of cooling towers, namely,
direct contact or open cooling tower which exposes the water
directly to the atmosphere and transfers source heat load
directly to the air. The other type called closed circuit cooling
tower which maintains an indirect contact between the fluid and
the atmosphere. Cooling towers can be categorized from
various perspectives like depending on air circulation, air and
water flow direction, heat transfer mood, etc. Depending on air
circulation, towers are known as atmospheric type and
mechanical draft towers. Atmospheric or natural draft towers
utilize natural convection. The aspirating effect of the water
spray induces air flow in the tower. Mechanical draft towers
utilize forced convection, so fans or blowers are used. These
towers are further classified into forced draft towers and
induced draft towers, according to installed-position of fan or
blower [35]. Depending on heat transferring mood, cooling
towers, respectively are called wet tower when evaporative
cooling is used, dry tower when air blast cooling is utilized and
wetdry type which has the simultaneous characteristics of both
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +880 2 9665603; fax: +880 2 9665622.
E-mail address: masarker@math.buet.ac.bd (M.M.A. Sarker).
0378-7788/$ see front matter # 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2008.02.010
dry and wet towers. Cooling effects in wet cooling towers are
partially brought about by the evaporative condenser where a
quota of the circulating water gets evaporated and partially by
the sensible heat transfer. On the other hand, cooling effect is
attained through convective and radiative heat transfer from any
hot metal surface to an air stream moving across the surface and
finally dissipating the heat into the atmosphere. A number of
numerical simulation [68] and mathematical models of the
cooling tower have been reported [911]. Experimental studies
[12,13] have been carried out on the wet cooling tower but the
experimental results on hybrid closed circuit cooling tower is
sparse in the relevant literature.
The hybrid closed circuit cooling tower (HCCCT) is capable
of working both in wet and dry mode. The cooling or
condensing system for fluids operates as a dry cooler in winter
and as an evaporative cooler in summer by spraying on the heat
transfer surface. Recirculating wet cooling towers have an
energy penalty associated with the additional pumps, fans, and
auxiliary equipment and can also require more extensive water
treatment [14].
HCCCT works well during the mid-season and winter as
long as ambient temperature remains less than 1214 8C;
plume-free, ice-free state and lower noise level is expected in
dry mode. HCCCT operates smoothly in wet mode while the
ambient temperature crosses 1214 8C, water consumption by
HCCCT is lower and the process water can be cooled down to
4 8C above the wet-bulb temperature and can be packed in light
and compact bundle with optimized circuitry [15].
1530 M.M.A. Sarker et al. / Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 15291535
Nomenclature
G flow rate of air (kg/h)
h enthalpy (J/kg)
k turbulent kinetic energy (m2/s2)
Q cooling capacity (kW)
V mean air velocity (m/s)
Greek symbols
e dissipation rate (m2/s3)
f flow variable, Eq. (1)
r air density (kg/m3)
Gf diffusion coefficient (N s/m2)
Subscripts
a air
i inlet
o outlet
In the HCCCT, water is sprayed in summer using square
form and wide angle spray nozzles from the top of the tower
along with a counter-type of air flow in both summer and winter
from the bottom part. During the summer operation, no plume
formation is expected due to the higher ambient temperature
and higher dew-point temperature in Southeast Asian region. In
winter, only the cooled air from the bottom is used and plume-
free state is predicted once again because, typical Southeast
Asian winter ambient air contains less amount of moister. The
objective of this experimental study is to investigate the
performance characteristics of HCCCT with respect to different
air inlet velocity and temperature. The most suitable experi-
mental condition based on the optimum performance of the
HCCCT will be devised from the numerical study reported by
Sarker et al. [19] and the experimental study will be done for the
prototype HCCCT having a rated capacity of 136 kW. It is
Fig. 1. Schematic of cooling tower along with a section of the coil bank.
expected that the prototype HCCCT would have the ability to
operate in plume-free mode as long as ambient temperature
remains less or equal to 15 8C in dry mode.
2. Numerical study of the HCCCT
The performance characteristics of the HCCCT mainly
depend on the design parameters and on the operating conditions.
In the numerical simulation, a commercial CFD software Fluent
[16] is used where air flow is modeled as a continuous phase and
is solved using the Eulerian approach. More details can be found
from Gan and Riffat [68] and Hasan and Siren [4].
The transport equation of air includes the conservation
equations for mass, momentum, energy and turbulence.
Standard ke model is the simplest, widely validated turbulence
model and therefore applied for predicting the turbulence effect
inside the HCCCT. The model equation for the steady-
incompressible flow reduces to:
r  rVf  G f rf Sf Sfp (1)
where Sf is the source term for the continuous phase and Sfp is
the source term related to the interaction between the air and the
water droplets. Control volume method has been applied for the
discretization and SIMPLEC algorithm [17] is utilized to
handle the problem related to pressurevelocity coupling.
Pressure gradient effects for the boundary layers around the
coils of the heat exchanger have been taken into account
through the enhanced wall treatment option.
Fluid flow is assumed to be of two-dimensional due to the fact
that length of the HCCCT is much larger than the corresponding
width. One half of the HCCCT with respect to the vertical center
line will be used as the computational domain due to the
geometrical symmetry. HCCCT is considered to be an adiabatic
device with negligible heat losses or gains from the surrounding
and that fluids are incompressible.
 M.M.A. Sarker et al. / Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 15291535
Table 1
Simulating conditions
Air Wet-bulb temperature (8C)
Mass flow rate (kg/s)
Spray water Volume flow rate (m3/h)
Temperature (8C)
Cooling water Inlet temperature (8C)
Volume flow rate (m3/h)
The temperature variation of the cooling water flowing
inside the tube is a function of the cooling load and the flow rate
of the cooling water. The tubes in the heat exchanger become
separate entities at the vertical cross-section of the HCCCT and
every tube is modeled as a smooth circular solid cylinder with
heat generation. The rate of heat transfer from the heat
exchanger to the air works as a source of heat generation and it
could either be obtained from the total cooling load measured
experimentally or from the models of the thermal performance
of the HCCCT [4,68]. The inlet louver installed at the caching
of the tower has an opening of 458 with the horizontal axis.
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the HCCCT along with the
section of the coil bank and Table 1 gives the nominal
simulating condition. More details about the numerical study
can be found from Sarker et al. [18,19].
3. Experimental apparatus and methods
Fig. 2 shows the schematic of the HCCCT experimental
apparatus and Fig. 3 gives the photograph of the section of the
experimental apparatus. In the experiment, a prototype HCCCT
is used where the coil section is located at the upper part, fans
Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental apparatus.
1531
27
8.0
33
29.0
37.0
24
Fig. 3. Photograph of the experimental apparatus.
are installed at the lower part alongside of the water tank. In the
coil section, coils, spray system, eliminator and the other
peripheral for connecting the parts are sequentially organized
and is kept in a casing. The copper coil having outer diameter of
15.88 mm has been used in the heat exchanger in a staggered
arrangement. The cooling water is supplied by pipes having
65 mm inlet diameters and the pipe is connected to the
distribution head through 44 horizontal cooling coils. The
cooling water flows in the downward direction from the top to
the bottom, so a lower pressure drop is expected across the coil
bank.
The spray system consists of the header which is made of
copper tube, the spray distributing pipe and a spray nozzle
having big caliber so that blocking/fouling can be prevented
and thus the spray water is uniformly distributed at the upper
1532 M.M.A. Sarker et al. / Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 15291535

part of the coils. The lower water tank section consists of the Table 2
Experimental condition
recirculated cooling water collecting tank part and the ambient
air forcing fan driven part. Cooling water Volume flow rate (m3/h) 24
Inlet temperature (8C) 37
3.1. The important sequences of the experiment are as Spray water Volume flow rate (m3/h) 33
follows Air Velocity (m/s) 3.1
Wet-bulb temperature (8C) 27
After all the relevant experimental conditions get stabilized,
then the data were collected and measured to minimize the
experimental errors and optimize the accuracy of the outputs.
A fixed air flow rate is maintained by using fan and 15HP
type inverter, the discharged air from the outlet of the cooling
tower which is highly humid and has high temperature, passes
though the return duct and mixes with the ambient air. The wet-
bulb temperature at the inlet of the tower is controlled through
an appropriate mixing of the outlet-saturated air having high
temperature with the ambient air utilizing damper. The proper
air constraint is maintained by applying 45 kW type heater and
cooling coil at the inlet of HCCCT. The surplus discharged air is
released to outside.
Cooling water flows in the internal part of the coil of the
HCCCT. The cooling water after coming out through the outlet
of the HCCCT is sent to the plate type heat exchanger. At the
other side of the plate heat exchanger, the heated water having
temperature of 80 8C is supplied from the 175 kW type boiler.
While passing though the plate heat exchanger, the cooling
water gains heat and get stabilized to a certain temperature and
is recirculated to the HCCCT. To control the temperature more
Fig. 4. Heat balance of experimental apparatus.
accurately, a bypass system is installed at the cooling water
supplying pipe and at the hot water supplying pipe. Then the
temperature at the desired level could be maintained through Only the valid data, selected from the stabilized state has been
controlling the supply of the flow rate of the cooling water and used for the analysis. To calculate the heat balance, following
the hot water to the plate heat exchanger. couple of equations are utilized:
In the experiment, a uniform air flow rate is maintained at the
cooling coil first, then the dry-bulb temperature and the wet- Qr 1 Wc p T W i  T W o (2)
bulb temperature of the air at the inlet are controlled. By
keeping the mass flow rate of the cooling water constant, water Qr 2 Gha;o  Gha;i (3)
air mass flow ratio varied and the temperature difference
between the inlet and outlet is measured. The experiment was Here Eq. (2) gives the exchanged heat capacity of the cooling
run changing the air flow rate. The pressure loss of the air was water and Eq. (3) represent the exchanged heat capacity of air
measured when the fan function gets stabilized and pressure brought about by the enthalpy difference between the inlet and
difference was recorded applying manometer. outlet of the air. Eqs. (2) and (3) are used to check the heat
The K-type thermocouple temperature sensor having a balance of the experimental apparatus. The results have been
diameter of 1.6 mm is used to measure the temperature of the shown in Fig. 4 where the heat balance data those inhered
cooling water at the inlet and the outlet of the HCCCT. The T- within 15% were used. The heat balance of the apparatus
type thermocouple temperature sensor with a diameter of could be claimed to be satisfactory. The results of the dry mode
0.3 mm is used while measuring the temperature of the air. The operation of HCCCT are given first followed by the wet mode
thermocouples used can measure the temperature in the wide operation.
range of 200 to 400 8C keeping the possible error less than
0.18. Sensors which are capable of measuring the data 4. Results and discussion
maintaining an error of less than 0.5% is used for recording
the temperature and the humidity. Humidity and temperature at 4.1. Numerical results
five points both at the air inlet and outlet were measured at
every 2 s and the averages of these values were applied. The operational cost of HCCCT in the form of the power
Under the standard experimental condition given in Table 2, consumed by the pump or fan is directly proportional to the
the experiment was repeated over and over again changing the pressure drop; that is why pressure drop has been studied from
wet-bulb temperature of inlet air as well as the airwater ratio. different perspectives as discussed next.
 M.M.A. Sarker et al. / Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 15291535 1533

Fig. 5. Cooling capacity and OHTC vs. air inlet temperature (left panel), pressure drop with respect to air inlet velocity (right panel).

Coils transverse pitch plays an important role in dropping Performance of the HCCCT can be substantially improved if
pressure across the heat exchanger in a HCCCT. Sarker et al. spray water is used along with the air from the bottom and this
[19] have recently reported numerical study where pressure aspect is discussed in wet mode.
distribution having pitches of 30, 40 and 45 mm were
investigated and showed that the coil having higher pitch 4.2. Experimental results on the wet mode operation
has lower pressure drop and vice versa. They [19] have also
demonstrated that increasing the pitches at will is not a wise 4.2.1. Effect of WBT on temperature range and the cooling
idea only for the sake of reducing pressure drop. Minimizing capacity
the pressure drop and the flow rate of the fluids in such Left axis of Fig. 6 shows the difference of the inlet and the
technique can minimize operating cost but it can increase the outlet temperatures of the cooling water with respect to the
size of the heat exchanger and thereby the initial cost. variable wet-bulb temperature (WBT) of the HCCCT. From this
figure it is clear that the outlet temperature of the cooling water
4.1.1. Results on dry mode increases with the increase of the wet-bulb temperature and that
For the dry mode, the cooling capacity mainly depends on at a WBT of 20 8C, the outlet temperature is about 7 8C cooler
the inlet temperatures of the cooling water and the surrounding than the inlet temperature. This is mainly because, when the
air. The effects of air inlet temperature having different cooling WBT at the inlet increases, then the temperature difference of
water inlet temperature (CWIT) ranging from 35 to 41 8C were the cooling water and the air at the respective inlets decreases.
investigated numerically [19]. Overall heat transfer coefficient Therefore, the vaporization of the spray water outside of the
(OHTC) combines the heat transfer coefficient of two heat pipe decreases so that the falling of the temperature of the
exchanger fluids and the thermal conductivity of the coil in the cooling water flowing inside the tube deceases. The drastic
heat exchanger. For the combined heat transfer, the total rate of decline of the temperature range could be noted while the WBT
heat transfer (Q) is related to the overall cross-sectional area is greater than or equal to 26 8C. The performance of the
(A), and the overall temperature difference (DT) using the HCCCT is shown in right axis of Fig. 6 as well. The cooling
OHTC (U) by Q = UADT.
Cooling capacities and OHTC are, respectively shown at the
left and right axes in left panel of Fig. 5. Cooling capacity and
OHTC were found to increase drastically with the decrease of
the air inlet temperature. The increasing CWIT augmented the
increase of the cooling capacity and OHTC as well.
Experimental cooling capacity and OHTC were investigated
only for the CWIT of 37 8C having an air inlet velocity of 3.1 m/
s. Although cooling capacity can be increased with higher
CWIT, the outlet cooling water temperature is also high for
higher CWIT which is undesirable.
Pressure drops for different air inlet velocity ranging from
1.5 to 4.0 m/s have been investigated and the results are shown
in the right panel of Fig. 5. The pressure drop across the coil
bank is seen to increase with the increase of the inlet air velocity
and temperature. At the design condition, i.e. at an air velocity
of 3.1 m/s and at a temperature of 15 8C, the experimental
pressured drop is found to be 22.03 Pa. Fig. 6. Temperature range and cooling capacity w.r.t. WBT.
1534 M.M.A. Sarker et al. / Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 15291535
Fig. 7. Range and cooling capacity vs. air to cooling water flow rate.
performance of the HCCCT can be defined as the product of the
cooling water flow rate and the temperature difference between
the inlet and the outlet of the HCCCT, multiplied by the specific
heat of the cooling water. At design condition, i.e. at the WBT
of 27 8C, the cooling capacity found from Fig. 6 is 130.5 kW
whereas the rated capacity is 136 kW, so, the experimental
capacity is seen to be about 4% lower than the rated one.
4.2.2. Characteristics by ratio of air to cooling water
volume flow rate
Left and right axes of Fig. 7, respectively show the
temperature range and the cooling capacity with respect to the
ratio of air to the cooling water volume flow rates. The cooling
capacity found from the ratio for the design condition is
134.9 kW which agrees well with the rated cooling capacity.
4.2.3. Effect of cooling water inlet temperature on the
performance
The temperature difference and the cooling capacity with
respect to the cooling water inlet temperature are, respectively
shown at the left and right axes in Fig. 8. Both the range and the
cooling capacity increase almost linearly with the increase of
the inlet temperature of the cooling water. The cooling capacity
found from Fig. 8 for the standard design condition, i.e. at a
cooling water inlet temperature of 37 8C is 134.7 kW.
Fig. 8. Range and cooling capacity by cooling water inlet temperature.
Fig. 9. Pressure drop w.r.t air inlet velocity.
4.2.4. Pressure drop with respect to air velocity
Pressure drop with respect to a variable air velocity has been
shown in Fig. 9. Pressure drop increases almost exponentially
with the increase of the air velocity. The increasing rate has
been escalated due to the spray water in the wet mode
operation. At the standard design condition, the pressure drop
can be seen to be around 39.3 Pa.
5. Concluding remarks
The performance characteristics of the hybrid closed circuit
cooling tower were investigated experimentally having a rated
capacity of 136 kW. The lower cooling performance was found
in the dry mode operation of HCCCT, which was cost-effective
due to the lower power consumption. In wet mode, wet-bulb
temperature at the experimental condition was 27 8C and the
cooling capacity at this WBT was 130.5 kW, which is about 4%
lower than the rated capacity. The capacity with regard to the
cooling water inlet temperature was 134.7 kW which agreed
well with the rated capacity. Very similar capacity was noted
with respect to the ratio of air to the cooling water volume flow
rate. The pressure drops in wet mode operation were seen to
increase almost exponentially with the increase of the air
velocity and the pressure drop was about 39.3 Pa for the wet
mode. The result obtained from this study is supposed to
provide basic relevant data that could be referred for the
optimum design of the hybrid closed circuit cooling towers.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported financially by Grant No. 70000279
from the Regional Industry Program of Gyongnam, South
Korea.
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