Practical No.

4
Objective :
To observe the processes with in a Forced draft cooling tower.

Theory :

Introduction
The Cooling Tower Apparatus has been designed to demonstrate the
construction, design and operational characteristics of a modern cooling
system. The unit resembles a full size forced draft cooling tower and it is
actually an "open system" through which two streams of fluid (in this
case air and water) pass and in which there is a mass transfer from one
stream to the other. The unit is self-contained supplied with a heating
load and a circulating pump. Once energy and mass balances are done,
then we able to determine the effects on the performance of the cooling
tower by the following parameters:

 Temperature and flow rate of water

 Relative Humidity and flow rate of air
 Cooling load

Cooling tower
A cooling tower is a specialized heat exchanger in which air and
water are brought into direct contact with each other in order to reduce
the water's temperature. As this occurs, a small volume of water is
evaporated, reducing the temperature of the water being circulated
through the tower.

Types of cooling tower

Cooling towers can be classified in two types :

1. Natural draft cooling tower

In this type of cooling tower, fan is not used for circulating air but
here, by enclosing the heated air in the chimney and it will create
pressure difference between heated air and surrounding air. Because of
this pressure difference air enters in to the cooling tower. It requires
large hyperbolic tower, so capital cost is high but operating cost is low
because of absence of electrical fan. There are two types of natural draft
cooling tower, rectangular timber tower and reinforced concrete
hyperbolic tower.

2. Mechanical draft cooling tower

In this type of cooling tower, fan is used to circulate the air. When
power plant runs on peak load, it requires a very high rate of cooling
water. To rotate fan, it uses motor with speed around 1000 rpm.
Working principle is same as natural draught cooling tower, only
difference is that here fan is mounted on the cooling tower. There are
two types of mechanical draft cooling tower, Forced draft tower and
Induced draft tower.
Unit Assembly of cooling tower
15
14 1

13 2

3
4

12 4

6
7
11 10 9

1. Makeup water tank 2. Water flow rate indicator

3. Heater Power indicator
5. Heater Selector Switch
7. Data Acquisition Port
9. Pump
11. Receiver Tank
13. Packed Column
15. Air out
4. Temp. & humidity display
6. Main Power Switch
8. Apparatus stand
10. Load Tank
12. Air blower
14. Water distributor
General start up procedure :
1. Fill the load tank with distilled or deionized water. Fill the makeup
tank with distilled or deionized water slightly lower than top
2. Connect all appropriate tubing to the differential pressure sensor.
3. Install the appropriate cooling tower packing for the experiment.
4. Then, set the temperature set point of temperature controller to
50°C. Switch on the 1.5 kW heater and heat up the water until
approximately 40°C.
5. Switch on the pump and slowly open the control valve V1 and set
the water flow rate to 2.0 LPM. Obtain a steady operation where the
water is distributed and flowing uniformly through the packing.
6. Fully open the fan damper, and then switch on the fan. Check that
the differential pressure sensor is giving reading when the valve
manifold is switched to measure the orifice differential pressure.
7. Let the unit run for about 20 minutes
8. Refill the makeup tank as required.
9. Now, the unit is ready for use.

Operating procedure of forced draft cooling tower :

 Perform the general start-up procedures and observe the forced
draught cooling tower proves.
 As the warm water enters the top of the tower, it is fed into channels
from which it flows via water distribution system onto the packing.
The channels are designed to distribute the water uniformly over the
packing with minimum splashing.
 The packing surfaces are easily wetted and the water spreads over the
surfaces to expose a large area to the air stream.
 The cooled water falls from the lowest packing into the basin and
then is pumped to the simulated load in the load tank.
 During the process, some water is lost due to the evaporation. Thus,
"make- up" water must be supplied to keep the amount of water in the
cooling system constant. The make-up is observed flowing past the
 float-controlled valve in the load tank.
 A “droplet arrester”, or “mist eliminator” is fitted at the tower outlet
to minimize loss of water due to escape of droplets of water (resulting
from splashing, etc.) which is entrained in the air stream. This loss
does not contribute to the cooling, but must be made good by "make-
up". The droplet arrester causes droplets to coalesce, forming drops
that are too large to be entrained and these falls back into the packing.
 The fan drives the air upward through the wet packing. At air outlet,
the air leaving the cooling tower is almost saturated, i.e.
Relative Humidity is ~100%. The Relative Humidity at the air outlet
is much higher than the Relative Humidity at the air inlet. The
increase in the moisture content of the air is due to the evaporation of
water into steam and the "latent heat" for this account for most of the
cooling effect.
 When the cooling load is switched off and the unit is allowed to
stabilize, it is found that the water leaves the basin at temperature
close to the wet bulb temperature of the air entering. Wet bulb
temperature is lower than the dry bulb temperature and this varies
according to the local atmospheric conditions (i.e. pressure and
relative humidity).
 With no load, the water would be cooled to the incoming wet bulb
tem- perature. However, the condition cannot be achieved since the
work done by the pump transfers about 40W to the water.

Observations & Calculations :

Water flow rate : 2.0 LPM
Air Flow : Maximum
Cooling load : 1.5 kW

Initial water level :22.4cm

Final water level : 19cm
Time Interval : 10minutes

Packing Density m-1 110

Air Inlet Dry Bulb, T1 ˚C 30.5

Air Out dry bulb, T2 ˚C 30.1

Water Inlet Temperature, T3 ˚C 36.8

Water Outlet Temperature, T4 ˚C 30.4

Water Make-Up Temperature, ˚C 28.8

T5
Orifice Differential, DP1 Pa 110

Water Flow Rate, F LPM 2

Heater Power, Q Watt 840