FABRICATION OF COOLING TOWER

A THESIS (PHASE I)

Submitted by

Y. NOORUL YAMEEN BABA (911516414003)

In partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

Of

MASTER OF ENGINEERING
In
THERMAL ENGINEERING

MOHAMED SATHAK ENGINEERING COLLEGE

KILAKARAI –623 806

ANNA UNIVERSITY CHENNAI–600 025

NOVEMBER 2017

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 ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600 025

BONAFIED CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that, the Thesis titled ―FABRICATION OF COOLING

TOWER‖ is the bonafide work of Y. NOORUL YAMEEN BABA (Reg. No.
911516414003) who carried out the project phase-I under my supervision.

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE

Dr.B.KANAGASUNDARAM M.E.,Ph.D. Mr.K.SHAHUL HAMEED M.E.,

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR

PROFESSOR ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Mohamed Sathak Engineering College, Mohamed Sathak Engineering College,
Kilakarai–623 806. Kilakarai–623 806.

This Work is submitted for Project Thesis Work (Phase I) Viva – Voce Examination held
on

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I thank God Almighty for giving me an opportunity to study in this prestigious

institution Mohamed Sathak Engineering College which provided me tremendous facilities and
support.
I am highly indebted to Our Chairman Alhaj S.M.MOHAMED YOUSUF, Mohamed
Sathak Trust Chennai, whose complete inspiration and motivation helped me throughout the
course of this project.
I feel deeply honored in expressing my sincere thanks to College
Dean Dr.J.MOHAMED JAHABAR M.E.,Ph.D(IIT-Bombay),FIE.,MISTE., MIEEE.,
MASME., Mohamed Sathak Engineering College, Kilakarai, who has been a good mentor and
for guiding me towards the right path of life.
I undergo much tribute to express my sincere gratefulness to Principal
Dr.J.ABBAS MOHAIDEEN M.Tech.,Ph.D.MISTE.,FIE.,C.Eng(I)., Mohamed Sathak
Engineering College, Kilakarai, for making the resources available at right time and providing
valuable insights leading to the successful completion of this project.
I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to Our Head
of the Department Dr.B.KANAGASUNDARAM M.E.,Ph.D., Department of Mechanical
Engineering for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout
the course of this project.
I am sincerely grateful to my Project Supervisor Mr.K.SHAHUL HAMEED M.E.,
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering for sharing his truthful and
illuminating views on a number of issues related to this project.
I also thank all other Faculty members and Supporting Staff of Department of
Mechanical Engineering - for their support and encouragement.
I wish to express a sense of gratitude to my friends and my beloved parents for their
manual support, strength and help and for everything.
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who have been instrumental
in the successful completion of this project.

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 ABSTRACT

The process of converting hot water into cold water is called cooling
process. The main air of the cooling tower is converting hot water input to the cold
water outlet. The water pump is used to supply the hot water into the cooling
tower. The cooling tower consists of cooling tube and fan. The hot water input is
split into the various paths by using more cooling tube.

The cooling tube bottom is having holes, which is used to split the water into
the water drapes. These water drapes is cooled by using fan, so that the hot water is
converted into cold water.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

PAGE
CHAPTERNO TITLE
NO
Abstract I
Table of Content II
List of Figures III
1 Introduction 1
2 Block Diagram 2
3 Components of Cooling Tower 3
3.1 Water Pump 3
3.2 Hot Water Tank 3
3.3 Cold Water Tank 3
3.4 Fan 4
4 Cooling Tower 7
5 Heat Transfer Methods 9
6 Air Flow Generation Methods 10
7 Working Principle 12

8 Advantages 13

9 Applications 14

10 Conclusion 15

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No Title Page No

2.1 Block Diagram of Cooling Tower 2

3.1 Parag Fans 4
3.2 Fan Blades 5
3.3 FRP Blades 6

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 1. INTRODUCTION

Mechanical Engineering without production and manufacturing is meaningless

and inseparable.Production and manufacturing process deals with conversion of raw
materialsinputs to finished products as per required dimensions, specification and
efficiently using recent technology. The new developments and requirements inspired us
to think of new improvements in air conditioning Engineering field.

The fabrication of cooling tower is our project; it is very useful in medium scale
industries by converting hot water into the cold water. The cooling tower consists of
more amounts of coolant tube and fan.

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 2. BLOCK DIAGRAM

POWER WATER
SUPPLY
PUMP
FAN

COOLANT TOWER

HOT WATER COLD WATER

Fig: 2.1 BLOCK DIADRAM OF COOLING TOWER

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 3. COMPONENTS OF COOLING TOWER

3.1 WATER PUMP

The pumping of water is a basic and practical technique, far more practical
than scooping it up with one's hands or lifting it in a hand-held bucket. This is true
whether the water is drawn from a fresh source, moved to a needed
location,purified, or used for irrigation, washing, or sewage treatment, or for
evacuating water from an undesirable location. Regardless of the outcome,
the energy required to pump water is an extremely demanding component of water
consumption. All other processes depend or benefit either from water descending
from a higher elevation or some pressurized plumbing system.

3.2 HOT WATER TANK

The hot water coming from the condenser of steam power plant is in the
form of high temperature level. This water is stored in the hot water tank before
pumping to the cooling tower by the use of water pump.

3.3 COLD WATER TANK

The water coming from the cooling tower is stored in the cold water tank
with required temperature level after the cooling process inside the cooling tower

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is finished. Then this water is reused in the steam power plant for the uninterrupted
working of power generation.

3.4 FAN

Mechanically forced-draft or induced-draft cooling towers are used to

remove the heat absorbed in the circulating cooling water systems. The Fan is a
very important component of the towers. All of our fans including cooling tower
fans installed worldwide are saving energy at the rate of 250MW. Parag fans
provide a less expensive and quick fix to reducing the auxiliary power
consumption in a plant.

Fig: 3.1 PARAG FANS

 Available Sizes: 2 Feet to 40 feet ( 600 mm to 12,000 mm)

 Number of Blades: 4 to 12
 Static Pressure: Up to 1 inch of WG (25 mm)
 Air Flow: Up to 30,00,000 CFM (1420 m^3 / sec)
 Fan RPM: Up to 1440
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  Operating Temperature Range: – 40ºC to 120ºC

Fig: 3.2 FAN BLADES

Features & Benefits

FRP FAN

 FRP Impeller

 Efficient operation.

 More air with less power or reduced power for same air.

 Optimal operational cost.

 Economical initial cost

 Impellers are dynamically balanced to ISO – 1940 Grade 6.3 or 2.6.

 Fans available with or without seal disk to suit Induced Draft or Forced
Draft applications.

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  Blade aerofoil with high lift and low drag.

 Small fans up to 6 feet (1800 mm) diameter are dynamically balanced as per
ISO–1940 Grade 6.3.

Fig: 3.3 FRP BLADES

FRP Blade:

 Blade aerofoil with high lift and low drag.

 Uniform air flow over entire blade length.

 UV protection and Fire retardant FRP Blades.

 Corrosion and Erosion resistant FRP Blades.

 Special leading edge protection.

 Moment balanced to ensure inter-changeability.

 Ideally shaped for standard and low noise fans.

 Convenient blade tip angle setting.

 Individual moulds for each blade size to maintain high efficiency

 Special blade shape at the root to minimize swirl without seal disk.

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 4. COOLLING TOWER

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device that rejects waste heat to the
atmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling
towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the
working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or, in the case of closed circuit
dry cooling towers, rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the dry-bulb
air temperature.
Common applications include cooling the circulating water used
in refineries, petrochemical and other chemicalplants,thermal power
stations andHVAC systems for cooling buildings. The classification is based on the
type of air induction into the tower: the main types of cooling towers are natural
draft and induced draft cooling towers.
Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units to very
large hyperboloid structures (as in the adjacent image) that can be up to 200 meters
(660 ft) tall and 100 meters (330 ft) in diameter, or rectangular structures that can
be over 40 meters (130 ft) tall and 80 meters (260 ft) long. The hyperboloid
cooling towers are often associated with nuclear power plants, although they are
also used in some coal-fired plants and to some extent in some large chemical and
other industrial plants. Although these large towers are very prominent, the vast
majority of cooling towers are much smaller, including many units installed on or
near buildings to discharge heat from air conditioning.
Industrial cooling towers can be used to remove heat from various sources
such as machinery or heated process material. The primary use of large, industrial
cooling towers is to remove the heat absorbed in the circulating cooling
water systems used in power plants, petroleum
refineries, petrochemical plants, natural gas processing plants, food processing
plants, semi-conductor plants, and for other industrial facilities such as in
condensers of distillation columns, for cooling liquid in crystallization, etc. The
circulation rate of cooling water in a typical 700 MW coal-fired power plant with a
cooling tower amounts to about 71,600 cubic meters an hour (315,000 US gallons
per minute) and the circulating water requires a supply water make-up rate of
perhaps 5 percent (i.e., 3,600 cubic meters an hour).

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 If that same plant had no cooling tower and used once-through
cooling water, it would require about 100,000 cubic meters an hour. A large
cooling water intake typically kills millions of fish and larvae annually, as the
organisms are impinged on the intake screens. A large amount of water would have
to be continuously returned to the ocean, lake or river from which it was obtained
and continuously re-supplied to the plant. Furthermore, discharging large amounts
of hot water may raise the temperature of the Receiving River or lake to an
unacceptable level for the local ecosystem. Elevated water temperatures can kill
fish and other aquatic organisms or can also cause an increase in undesirable
organisms such as invasive species of zebra mussels or algae. A cooling tower
serves to dissipate the heat into the atmosphere instead and wind and air diffusion
spreads the heat over a much larger area than hot water can distribute heat in a
body of water. Evaporative cooling water cannot be used for subsequent purposes
(other than rain somewhere), whereas surface-only cooling water can be re-used.
Some coal-fired and nuclear power plants located in coastal areas do make use of
once-through ocean water. But even there, the offshore discharge water outlet
requires very careful design to avoid environmental problems.
Petroleum refineries also have very large cooling tower systems. A typical
large refinery processing 40,000 metric tonsof crude oil per day (300,000 barrels
(48,000 m3) per day) circulates about 80,000 cubic meters of water per hour
through its cooling tower system.
The world's tallest cooling tower is the 202 meters (663 ft) tall cooling tower
of Kalisindh Thermal Power Station in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India.

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 5. HEAT TRANSFER METHODS

 dry cooling towers operate by heat transfer through a surface that separates
the working fluid from ambient air, such as in a tube to air heat exchanger,
utilizing convective heat transfer. They do not use evaporation.
 wet cooling towers (or open circuit cooling towers) operate on the
principle of evaporative cooling. The working fluid and the evaporated fluid
(usually water) are one and the same.
 fluid coolers (or closed circuit cooling towers) are hybrids that pass the
working fluid through a tube bundle, upon which clean water is sprayed and
a fan-induced draft applied. The resulting heat transfer performance is much
closer to that of a wet tower, with the advantage provided by a dry cooler of
protecting the working fluid from environmental exposure and
contamination.
In a wet cooling tower (or open circuit cooling tower), the warm water can be
cooled to a temperature lower than the ambient air dry-bulb temperature, if the air
is relatively dry. As ambient air is drawn past a flow of water, a small portion of
the water evaporates, and the energy required to evaporate that portion of the water
is taken from the remaining mass of water, thus reducing its temperature.
Approximately 970 BTU of heat energy is absorbed for each pound of evaporated
water (2 MJ/kg). Evaporation results in saturated air conditions, lowering the
temperature of the water processed by the tower to a value close to wet-bulb
temperature, which is lower than the ambient dry-bulb temperature, the difference
determined by the initial humidity of the ambient air.
To achieve better performance (more cooling), a medium called fill is used to
increase the surface area and the time of contact between the air and water
flows. Splash fill consists of material placed to interrupt the water flow causing
splashing.Film fill is composed of thin sheets of material (usually PVC) upon
which the water flows. Both methods create increased surface area and time of
contact between the fluid (water) and the gas (air), to improve heat transfer.

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 6. AIR FLOW GENERATION METHODS

 Natural draft — Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney. Warm, moist

air naturallyrises due to the density differential compared to the dry, cooler
outside air. Warmmoist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure.
This moist air buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the
tower.
 Mechanical draught —Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw air
through the tower.
 Induced draught — A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the discharge
(at the top) which pulls air up through the tower. The fan induces hot moist
air out the discharge. This produces low entering and high exiting air
velocities, reducing the possibility of recirculation in which discharged air
flows back into the air intake. This fan/fin arrangement is also known
as draw-through.
 Forced draught — A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at the
intake. The fan forces air into the tower, creating high entering and low
exiting air velocities. The low exiting velocity is much more susceptible to
recirculation. With the fan on the air intake, the fan is more susceptible to
complications due to freezing conditions. Another disadvantage is that a
forced draft design typically requires more motor horsepower than an
equivalent induced draft design. The benefit of the forced draft design is its
ability to work with high static pressure. Such setups can be installed in
more-confined spaces and even in some indoor situations. This fan/fin
geometry is also known as blow-through.
 Fan assisted natural draught — A hybrid type that appears like a natural
draft setup, though airflow is assisted by a fan.
 Hyperboloid (sometimes incorrectly known as hyperbolic) cooling towers
have become the design standard for all natural-draft cooling towers because
of their structural strength and minimum usage of material. The hyperboloid
shape also aids in accelerating the upward convective air flow, improving
cooling efficiency. These designs are popularly associated withnuclear
power plants. However, this association is misleading, as the same kind of

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 cooling towers are often used at large coal-fired power plants as well.
Conversely, not all nuclear power plants have cooling towers, and some
instead cool their heat exchangers with lake, river or ocean water.
 Thermal efficiencies up to 92% have been observed in hybrid cooling
towers.

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 7. WORKING PRINCIPLE

There are many different types of cooling towers but the cooling tower
working principles stay pretty much the same. Most cooling towers work based on
the principles of ―evaporative cooling‖.

Evaporative cooling is the process where warm water from an industrial

process or power plants is pumped up to the top of the cooling tower where the
water distribution system is. The water then gets distributed by cooling tower
nozzles to the wet deck. At the same time, air is being drawn through the air- inlet
louvers forcing water to evaporate. Evaporation causes the heat to be removed
from the makeup water. The hot air naturally rises out of the tire.

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 8. ADVANTAGES

 Simple in construction
 This system is noiseless in operation
 It is portable, so it can be transferred easily from one place to other place
 Maintenance cost is low
 Low cost and high performance

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 9. APPLICATIONS

Industries Applications
It is also used in a power plants

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 10. CONCLUSION

The design of cooling tower is closely related to tower

characteristic and different types oflosses generated in cooling tower.
Even though losses are generated in the cooling tower, the cooling is
achieved due to heat transfer between air and water. In ideal condition,
the heat loss by water must be equal to heat gain by air. But in actual
practice it is not possible because of some type of losses. I conclude that
cooling tower performance increases with increase in air flow rate and
characteristic decreases with increase in water to air mass ratio.

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