DISSCUSSION

The experiment that was conducted was cooling tower experiment. Cooling tower is a
device that rejects heat which removes the waste heat to the atmosphere to achieve the
temperature needed. The type of heat rejection in a cooling tower is termed "evaporative" where
it allows a small portion of the water being heated to evaporate then is condensed into a moving
air stream to provide significant cooling to the rest of that water stream. The heat from the water
stream transferred to the air stream raises the air's temperature and its relative humidity to 100%,
and this air is discharged to the atmosphere.

There are a few basic term of level of cooling tower should be engaged when conduct this
experiment as a basic knowledge to perform experiment perfectly. First is cooling range. The
difference in temperature between the heated water entering the tower and the cold water leaving
the tower is the cooling range. Second is the difference between the temperature of the cold
water leaving the tower and the wet-bulb temperature of the air is known as the approach.
Establishment of the approach fixes the operating temperature of the tower and is a most
important parameter in determining both tower size and cost. Others is heat load and wet-bulb
temperature. Heat Load is the amount of heat to be removed from the circulating water within
the tower.. Heat load is also an important parameter in determining tower size and cost. Wet-
Bulb Temperature is the lowest temperature that water theoretically can reach by evaporation.
Wet-Bulb temperature is an extremely important parameter in tower selection and design and
should be measured by a psychrometer.

The objectives of the cooling tower experiment. First is to determine the correlation of
water to air mass flow ratio with increasing water flow rate. Second is to determine the cooling
load effect, and the effect of different flow rates on the wet bulb approach. Another objective is
to estimate the evaporation rate of water (water loss) for the tower. The experiment is varied by
using three variables; heating load, water flow rate and blower damper.
 For experiment 1, Investigation of the effect of different the power of heater toward
cooling range of cooling tower based on three different value of power of heater which is 0.5 kW,
1.0 kW and 1.5 kW give the result of three different cooling range. When we used the value of
heater power above it will resulting the value of cooling range 6.8°C, 6.4°C, and 6.9°C
respectively. It show that increasing the value of heater power will increase the temperature of
cooling range in cooling tower by constant of air blower and constant water flow rate which is
2.0 LPM (liter per minute).

Other than that, cooling load also determine the performance of cooling tower. Cooling
load is the rate at which heat is removed from the water. The higher the cooling load, the higher
the heat removal from the water. Hence, the water will experience lower temperature which is
actually that we wanted. However, the cooling load is different according to its parameters. For
parameter of heating load, of 0.5 kW, 1.0 kW and 1.5 kW, the cooling loads are 0.5 k W, 1.000
kW and 1.5 kW respectively. We can see that the higher the heating load, the higher the cooling
load would be. This is because the heating load is actually the power of the pump that
compresses the water to increase the temperature and also pressure of the water. The higher the
heating load, the higher the evaporation rate of the water. Thus, the temperature difference of the
evaporated water with the temperature of air in the cooling tower will bring to great heat removal
from the evaporated water.

For experiment 2, we have investigate of the effect of cooling range toward different
water flow rate. We choose to investigate the relationship between the flow rate and the cooling
effect at 2.0(LPM), 2.2(LPM) and 2.4(LPM). From the calculation, the value of cooling range
where T5-T6 will show the decresing value which is 8°C, 6.4°C and 5.9°C respectively. From
this data we can conclude that the faster water flow rate will give small value of mass transfer
which in this term of heat transfer in this cooling system. In this experiment also we can
calculate the value of heat load based on different water flow rate. The correlation of water to air
mass flow ratio is called r, is important to know the portion transferred by evaporation. The
higher the evaporation of water, the mass flow rate of the water will be reduced which is what
we actually wanted. Once the water mass flow rate is reduced, the mass flow rate of air that
enters the column packing remains the same. So, there is more air that can cool the water. Hence,
the effectiveness of the water to be cooled will be higher and the cooling effectiveness will be
higher in water flow rate of 2.4 LPM.

For experiment 3,the parameter of blowing damper, which are partially open, half opened
and fully opened. In this experiment, when the blower damper is opened fully, the air mass
velocity is 1.49 ms-1 while when the blower damper is half-opened , the air velocity is 1.16 ms-1
and partially open velocity is 1.38 ms-1 . The higher the air velocity, the higher the approach
would be because the air that enters through the blower will decrease the wet bulb temperature so
that the water leaving the tower will be higher than the wet bulb temperature because approach is
another term that used in cooling tower that tells how closely the leaving cold water temperature
approaches the entering air wet bulb temperature. To be exact it is actually the temperature
differences between the water leaving the cooling tower and the ambient wet-bulb temperature.
Approach is the most important indicator of cooling water performance because it dictates the
theoretical limit of the leaving cold water temperature and no matter the size of the cooling tower,
range or heat load, it is not possible to cool the water below the wet bulb temperature of air.
Hence, the leaving water temperature must be higher than the wet bulb temperature. The
different air flow rates will affect the approach of the experiment.

CONCLUSION

From the experiment that has been conducted we can conclude that, all objective of this
experiment is achieved. The correlation of water to air mass flow ratio with increasing water
flow rate has been determined. Where for water flow rates of 2.0 LPM, 2.4 LPM and 2.8 LPM,
the cooling range values are 8.0, 6.4 and 5.9 respectively. We also manage to calculate the
effectiveness of cooling tower which is the highest at 2.4 LPM for 73.75%. The effect of heating
load to the cooling tower is also achieved. The higher the amount of heating load, the more
effective is the cooling tower performance. Other than that, cooling tower with fully opened
blower will operate more effective compared with cooling tower with partally open and half fully
opened. This experiment was not conducted successfully as there are no errors when conducting
the experiment.
RECOMMENDATION

In order to obtain better results, there are a few recommendations that may be considered.

1. The auxiliary heaters always be used during experiments in order to increase the
temperature difference between the return water from the water heater and the cool
supply water. This increase in temperature difference will allow for a larger enthalpy
difference and will decrease the possibility of the enthalpy difference being negligible.
2. The humidity recording devices were not working properly. So,be recalibrated or
replaced so that more accurate and timely measurements of humidity can be made.
3. Use appropriate safety PPE when conducting the experiment
4. Make consultation with lab assistance before run the experiment
5. Make sure student know how to use the equipment.
6. Avoid any of mistake and error when conducting the experiment to get best result. Stay
alert to the time taken of every ten minutes running.

REFERENCES

Cooling Tower Experiments. (2018). Chem.engr.utc.edu. Retrieved 1 April 2018, from

http://chem.engr.utc.edu/webres/435F/3T-CT/3T-CT.html

(2018). Me.iitb.ac.in. Retrieved 1 April 2018, from

http://www.me.iitb.ac.in/~matrey/PDF's/cooling%20tower.pdf

(2018). User.engineering.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 1 April 2018, from

http://user.engineering.uiowa.edu/~expeng/laboratories/lab1/Lab%201b.pdf

2018). Wwwcourses.sens.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 1 April 2018, from

http://wwwcourses.sens.buffalo.edu/ce427/Fall05cooling%20tower.pdf

Daly, S., Letherman, K., & Porges, F. (2018). Cooling Tower | Air Conditioning | Hvac. Scribd. Retrieved 2
April 2018, from https://www.scribd.com/document/259381879/Cooling-Tower