Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2019, Vol. 11(12) 1–8
Ó The Author(s) 2019
New explicit analytical solutions of DOI: 10.1177/1687814019896147
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
equations for heat and mass transfer
in a cooling tower energy system

Qianjian Guo1, Xiaoni Qi2 , Peng Sun2 and Pengjiang Guo2

Abstract
The aim of this article is to develop an accurate and fast analytical method for heat and mass transfer model in a cooling
tower energy system. Some algebraic explicit analytical solutions of the one-dimensional differential equation sets
describing the coupled heat and mass transfer process in a cooling tower are derived. The explicit solutions have not yet
been published before. The explicit equations of heat and mass transfer are expressed in elementary functions. By sol-
ving these differential equations in a cooling tower, the temperature distribution of liquid and gas, the moisture content
in the air can be obtained in each section over the vertical height of the tower. A comparison of analytical and experi-
mental results was given in this article, and good agreements were shown for the typical cases studied. The analytical
solutions can serve as a benchmark to check the results of numerical calculation.

Keywords
Cooling tower, explicit analytical solution, heat and mass transfer

Date received: 2 June 2019; accepted: 20 November 2019

Handling Editor: James Baldwin

Introduction been studied numerically and experimentally by a

A cooling tower is an essential device used for heat dis-
sipation in the industrial process1 (as shown in Figure
1). In practical applications, prediction of performance
behavior of cooling towers by fast and accurate calcu-
lating methods plays an important role in the effective
design and operation. The cooling process can be
expressed by physical—mathematical models and basic
partial differential equation sets. But it is very difficult
or even impossible to obtain the analytical solutions
for these differential equation sets for arbitrary initial
and boundary conditions. Therefore, most solutions
are numerical ones for specific conditions. Because of
the nonlinear relationship between the various factors,
almost all the researchers use the numerical method to
simulate the performance of the cooling tower.
Cooling towers have been used for a longtime. It is
well known that most of the natural phenomena are
inherently non-linear including these heat and mass
transfer problems. Until now, cooling tower system has
number of researchers.
The one-dimensional heat and mass transfer model
based on the Merkel theory,2–4 effectiveness––number
of transfer unit (e-NTU) theory,5 and Poppe theory6
are widely applied in design calculation and perfor-
mance analysis of wet cooling towers. One-dimensional
models only consider the heat and mass transfer in the
vertical direction, and ignore the pressure drop in the
tower. The assumption simplifies the calculation and
provides a great convenience for the calculation of the
1
College of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University of Technology,
Zibo, China
2
College of Traffic and Vehicle Engineering, Shandong University of
Technology, Zibo, China
Corresponding author:
Xiaoni Qi, College of Traffic and Vehicle Engineering, Shandong University
of Technology, Zhangzhou Road 12, Zibo 255049, China.
Email: nini@alumni.sjtu.edu.cn

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
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without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages
(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 1. Schematic of a counter-flow wet cooling tower.
performance of the cooling tower. Kloppers and
Kröger7 analyzed the one-dimensional Merkel model,
e-NTU model, and Poppe model. It pointed out that
the Poppe model is relatively accurate, and the Merkel
model and the e-NTU model only consider the chang-
ing of two parameters: water temperature and air
enthalpy.
The two-dimensional model considers that the air
flowing is in a two-dimensional axisymmetric state in
the tower. The governing equations of air and water are
solved based on the numerical method8 so as to analyze
the radial variation of air temperature and cooling water
temperature. Caytan9 uses the finite difference method
to solve the two-dimensional partial differential equa-
tion of the air and water flow in the wet cooling tower.
Majumdar et al.10 treated the circulating water as one-
dimensional flow, and air as two-dimensional steady
flow. The two-phase gas–water heat transfer intensity
and two-dimensional distribution of airflow were calcu-
lated and analyzed. The literatures11–14 conducted two-
dimensional analyses on two-phase heat and mass trans-
fer in counter-flow wet cooling towers.
Radosavljevic15 and Radosavljevic and Spalding16
conducted two-dimensional axisymmetric and three-
dimensional (3D) numerical models based on the alge-
braic turbulent model. They analyzed the air flow
inside and outside the wet cooling tower; however, heat
and mass transfer coefficient in the water distribution
area, the filling area and rain zone are selected by
empirical formula. Based on the finite element theory,
the 3D numerical calculation program of wet cooling
tower is developed in Razafindrakoto and Denis17 and
Fournier and Boyer,18 and the influence of the environ-
mental and the meteorological conditions on the
cooling performance of the wet cooling tower is ana-
lyzed. Al-Waked and Behnia19 carried out the 3D
numerical calculation of natural ventilation counter-
flow cooling tower based on the computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) general software Fluent, and the
influence of ambient side wind is analyzed. Based on
3D numerical calculation, the influence sensitivity of
the side wind on various filling of cooling tower is stud-
ied based on 3D numerical calculation by Dreyer
et al.20 In view of the complexity of the calculation, the
3D numerical calculation mostly analyzes the influence
of the environmental side wind on the performance of
the cooling tower.
As mentioned above, a large amount of literature on
cooling towers has been reported. Many researchers
have done a lot of work on the performance of cooling
tower through experimental tests and numerical simula-
tion. But the experimental study needs the right place
and a large amount of test funds. It takes a lot of time,
manpower, and material resources. Almost all theoreti-
cal studies are based on various numerical techniques.
With the development of computer technology, numeri-
cal simulation research method is favored by people,
but it needs to be verified for the correctness. This is
the reason why the first objective of this work is to ela-
borate an exact solution to predict the cooling behavior
of the cooling tower system. Analytical solutions for
basic equations have significant meaning and irreplace-
able function. An analytical solution is useful to predict
the performance of cooling tower systems. The exact
solution obtained can be used as a reference to validate
the numerical simulations and other approximate meth-
ods. It will be helpful to get fast and accurate evalua-
tion of model equations to develop advanced control
strategies. The analytical solution can be very intuitive
to express the physical law and working process of the
cooling tower, but it is a common method for research
of cooling tower working process. This makes the solu-
tion of the set of equations challenging, often calling
for a numerical solution.
In this article, based on the shortcomings of the tra-
ditional model of heat and mass transfer in wet cooling
towers, the analytical solution of heat and mass transfer
in wet cooling towers is completed. Until now, there
have been no precise analytical solutions for cooling
towers. In this article, an analytical solution to the ordi-
nary differential equations under different conditions
are solved based on proper simplification, and the solu-
tions of the heat and mass transfer equations will be
obtained by the elementary function. The explicit ana-
lytical solutions were derived for the coupled partial
differential equation set describing cooling process in
cooling towers. Therefore, some algebraic explicit ana-
lytical solutions of basic one-dimensional cooling pro-
cess equation set are derived and given in this article to
enrich the cooling tower research.
Guo et al.
Figure 2. A schematic diagram of the heat transfer of the
saturated vapor layer.
Figure 3. A control segment of cooling tower.
Physical model and basic equation set
In the cooling tower, hot water rejects waste heat to the
air through the evaporation of water and the contact
heat rejection. After absorbing heat, the air temperature
and humidity increase, the density decreases. The heat
transfer between water and air has two main forms,
namely, the convective heat transfer and convective
mass transfer (i.e. evaporation). When the low tempera-
ture air flows through the surface of the higher
3
temperature water, the water will transfer the heat to
the air in the form of convection. In the cooling tower,
the droplet diameter and the thickness of the liquid film
are very small. Generally, the internal thermal resis-
tance is ignored, and the internal temperature is
assumed to be the same. As can be seen from the above,
the temperature difference is the driving force of con-
vective heat transfer. For the convective mass transfer,
the single film theory of water evaporation indicates
that when air contacts with water, there is a thin air film
surrounding the water droplet. As shown in Figure 2,
the air film is considered to be saturated, and its tem-
perature is equal to the water temperature. The vapor-
ized water molecules first enter the saturated air layer,
then the molecules in the saturated air layer continue to
diffuse into the air, and the water vaporizes continu-
ously into the saturated air layer. The speed of evapora-
tion depends mainly on the diffusion rate, because the
evaporation of water to the saturated air layer can be
completed instantaneously, and the speed of diffusion
depends on the difference between the vapor pressure
of the saturated air layer and the atmosphere.
In order to take into account both of the accuracy
and convenience of the model, the following assump-
tions are used in the model of coupled heat and mass
transfer in a cooling tower:
1. It is assumed that there is a layer of saturated
air film on the surface of the water film, and the
temperature of the air film is equal to the tem-
perature of water, and the relative humidity is 1,
as shown in Figure 2.
2. When the water temperature is constant, the
moisture content and enthalpy of the saturated
air film are all in a stable state.
3. Lewis number reflecting the relationship
between the heat transfer coefficient and the
mass transfer coefficient is 1, that is
hM = hH =cpa .
For a cooling tower, it is assumed that the cross-
sectional area is A and the height is L, as shown in
Figure 3.
The mass transfer at the air–water interface due to
the difference in vapor concentration in the discrete
height dl is
 dmw = ma dw = hM ðwsw  wa ÞAM dl ð1Þ
where mw is the water mass flow rate, kg=s; ma is the
air mass flow rate, kg=s;hM is the mass transfer coeffi-
cient driven by the difference of vapor concentration,
kg=(m2  s); wa is the humidity ratio of moist air,
kg=kg; wsw is the humidity ratio of saturated moist air
at water temperature, kg=kg; AM is the mass transfer
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

area per unit height, m2 =m; and dl is the discrete where

height, m.
The sensible heat transmitted from the saturated air hM AM i
K1 =
at the air–water interface to the main air in the discrete ðm w c w Þ
height is hH AH
K2 =
ðm w c w Þ
dQH = ma cp dta = hH ðtw  ta ÞAH dl ð2Þ ð7Þ
hM AM
K3 =
where cp is the specific heat capacity at constant pres- ma
sure, kJ=(kg  8C); hH is the convective heat transfer hH AH
K4 =
coefficient between air and water, kW=(m2  8C); AH is ma ccp
the heat transfer area per unit height, m2 =m; ta is the
air temperature, 8C; and tw is the water temperature, According to the assumption of Lewis relationship
8C. hM = hH =cpa , K3 = K4 .
The latent heat transmitted by the saturated air from
Boundary conditions: tw (0) = two , wa (0) = wi ,
the gas water interface to the mainstream air in the dis-
ta (0) = tai , and dw = ktw + e. All the coefficients and
crete height is
boundary conditions are positive.
dQM = ihM ðwsw  wa ÞAM dl ð3Þ Substituting equation (13) into equation (9-b) and
(9-c) yields
where i specific enthalpy, kJ=kg. 8 0
The total heat transmitted to the air is > W = ðkK1  K3 ÞWa + K2 ta + MK3 ðaÞ
< a
  t0 a = ðkK1 ÞWa + ðK2  K3 Þta + MK3 ðb Þ
>
ma cpa dta + idw = ½hH ðtw  ta ÞAH + ihM ðwsw  wa ÞAM dl :
Wa (0) = bk , ta (0) = c ðc Þ
ð4Þ
ð8Þ
The heat loss of water in the cooling tower    
wa K1 K2
Wa = , M =a  b c ð9Þ
dQw = ðmw dtw + tw dmw Þcw ð5Þ k K3 K3

where cw is the specific heat capacity of water, The coefficient determinant of the unknown quantity
kJ=(kg  8C). on the right side of equation (14) is
 
 kK1  K3 K2 
 = K32  K2 K3  kK1 K3 ð10Þ
Analytical approach  kK1 K2  K3 
Because the basic equations of the heat and mass trans-
fer in the cooling tower is three-variable ordinary differ- The solution of equation (8) is discussed according
ential equations, it is difficult to be solved by the usual to formula (10):
method. In this article, the exact solution of the air and
water state in each section of the cooling tower based 1. As K32  K2 K3  kK1 K3 = 0:
on some assumptions is obtained, which provides a the-
oretical basis for future research. (a)
As K32  K2 K3  kK1 K3 = 0 and
kK1 + K2  2K3 = 0 (in practical, this
condition is impossible)
Methodology for the exact solution of the heat and Through mathematical operations yields
mass transfer equations
It can be obtained from equations (2)–(5) ðK 2  K 4 Þ 2 2
T= K3 Ml
2K2  

8 dtw ðlÞ ðK2  K3 Þ b

>
>  ðkK1 + K2 Þtw ðlÞ =  K1 wa ðlÞ  K2 ta ðlÞ (a) + ðK2  K3 Þ C  + MK3 l + C ð11Þ
< dl K2 k
dwa ðlÞ
> dl + K3 wa ðlÞ = K3 ðwsw ðl ÞÞ ðb Þ
>
: dta ðlÞ (b) As K32  K2 K3  kK1 K3 = 0 and
dl + K4 ta ðlÞ = K4 tw ðlÞ ðcÞ kK1 + K2  2K3 6¼ 0, the solution to
ð6Þ equation (8) is solved as follows
Guo et al. 5

ðK2  K4 ÞK32 M ðK 2  K 3 Þ Table 1. Experimental data at industrial cooling tower.21

T= l+
K2 ðkK1 + K2  2K3 Þ ð2K3  kK1  K2 ÞK2
  Cooling tower parameter Experimental values
b
K2 C  ðkK1  K3 Þ + MK3
k A 180 m2
H 0.6 m
ðK2  K3 ÞK3 M
 +C twi 40°C
K2 ðkK1 + K2  2K3 Þ2 two 29.7°C
ðK2  K3 Þ tai 25.5°C
+ C0 exp½ð2K3  kK1  K2 Þl tao 30.7°C
K2 wai 0.0190 kg H2 O=kg air
ð12Þ wao 0.0290 kg H2 O=kg air
mw 450 kg=s
2. As K32  K2 K3  kK1 K3 6¼ 0, the solution to equa- ma 650 kg=s
tion (8) is solved as follows

(
D = C1 expðr1 lÞ + C2 expðr2 lÞ + N Based on the above discussion and comparison, the
T=  ðkK1 K3 r1 Þ
expðr1 lÞ 
C1 ðkK1 K3 r2 Þ
expðr2 lÞ + N C2
following conclusion can be obtained: the outlet para-
K2 K2
  
meters and parameter distributions of cooling towers
C1 = p1ffiffiffi bk  N  ðkK1  K3  r2 Þ + K2 ðC  N Þ
D
calculated by means of the analytical solution of this
 b 
article are in good agreement with the experimental
C2 = p1ffiffiffi K2 ðC  N Þ +  N  ðkK1  K3  r1 Þ
D k
ð13Þ
Results and discussion
Milosavljevic and Heikkilae21 tested the performance
of the cooling tower. Different filling materials are used
at the top and at the bottom of the cooling tower. The
filling heights are 0.6 and 1.8 m, respectively. Since the
information detail about the bottom filling is not given
in the article, we will only compare the experimental
results at the top with the analytical solution. Table 1
gives the measurement data from Milosavljevic and
Heikkilae.21
The comparison was made under typical operating
condition investigated experimentally in Milosavljevic
and Heikkilae.21 The basic parameters are shown in
Table 1. The performance and outlet parameters of the
cooling tower are predicted by the analytical method in
this article. Results comparisons are presented in Table
2, where relative errors for the outlet parameters were
defined as the differences between the analytical and
experimental data to the overall changes of the corre-
sponding variables. The parameters profiles obtained
by different methods are demonstrated in the figures.
Figures 4–6 show the profiles of air humidity, air tem-
perature, and water temperature along the tower,
respectively.
From Table 2, it is easy to find that the relative
errors by the analytical method are generally less than
10% except for two cases in water temperature. In the
cases that the inlet water temperatures are high, the
errors in the linearization of air saturation humidity at
the water surface is great. This leads to increased rela-
tive errors by the analytical model.
results. In the typical case, most of the average and
maximum relative errors are far less than 10%. Because
the analytical model only needs several steps to calcu-
late the correlation coefficient and constant to get the
accurate analysis result, the model can directly and
quickly calculate the changing rules of liquid, gas, inter-
face temperature, and moisture content in the air along
the vertical height of the tower. Therefore, the validity
and practicability of the analytical model are obtained.
Analysis on heat transfer process
Figure 7 shows the temperature distributions of air,
water, and temperature difference in the cooling tower.
From 0.6 to 0 m away from the bottom of the cooling
tower, the air temperature is lower than the cooling
water temperature, and the temperature difference of
heat transfer in the cooling tower decreases gradually.
The temperature difference of heat transfer is in the
range of 4.4°C–11.2°C. From the point of view of heat
transfer, the lower the air temperature, the greater the
difference of heat transfer temperature in the tower, the
more conducive to the reduction of cooling water
temperature.
Analysis on mass transfer process
Figure 8 shows the distribution of the partial pressure
distribution and the mass transfer driving force in the
cooling tower. From 0 to 0.6 m away from the bottom
of the cooling tower, the partial pressure of water
vapor in the air is lower than the saturated vapor pres-
sure of water, and the mass transfer driving force in the
cooling tower is in the range of 0.624–0.927 kPa, which
decreases gradually. From the mass transfer point of
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 2. Comparison of analytical results with experimental data.

Height of the tower Analytical results Experimental results Relative errors

L (m) tw (°C) ta (°C) wa (kg/kg air) tw (°C) ta (°C) wa (kg/kg air) etw (%) eta (%) ewa (%)

0.00 29.39 25.50 0.0190 29.70 25.5 0.0190 –3.01 0 0

0.03 29.64 25.40 0.0196 29.57 25.23 0.0198 0.68 3.27 –2.00
0.06 29.92 25.51 0.0198 30.21 25.44 0.0200 –2.82 1.35 –2.00
0.10 30.25 25.64 0.0201 30.42 25.66 0.0202 –1.65 –0.38 –1.00
0.13 30.62 25.79 0.0204 30.63 25.87 0.0208 –0.10 –1.54 –4.00
0.16 31.03 25.96 0.0207 31.28 26.08 0.0211 –2.43 –2.31 –4.00
0.19 31.48 26.14 0.0211 31.70 26.51 0.0215 –2.14 –7.12 –4.00
0.23 31.98 26.34 0.0215 32.13 26.72 0.0219 –1.46 –7.31 –4.00
0.26 32.53 26.57 0.0219 32.55 26.89 0.0221 –0.19 –6.15 –2.00
0.29 33.12 26.81 0.0224 33.19 26.93 0.0228 –0.68 –2.31 –4.00
0.32 33.77 27.07 0.0229 33.83 27.57 0.0229 –0.58 –9.62 0.00
0.35 34.47 27.35 0.0235 34.46 27.79 0.0237 0.10 –8.46 –2.00
0.39 35.22 27.65 0.0241 34.89 27.85 0.0239 3.20 –3.85 2.00
0.42 36.04 27.98 0.0248 35.53 28.21 0.0243 4.95 –4.42 5.00
0.45 36.90 28.33 0.0255 36.38 28.64 0.0247 5.05 –5.96 8.00
0.48 37.83 28.70 0.0262 37.02 29.06 0.0264 7.86 –6.92 –2.00
0.52 38.82 29.10 0.0270 37.86 29.27 0.0272 9.32 –3.27 –2.00
0.55 39.88 29.53 0.0279 38.82 29.70 0.0279 10.29 –3.27 0
0.58 40.99 29.98 0.0288 39.67 30.13 0.0287 12.81 –2.88 1.00

Figure 4. Experimental and analytical comparison of humidity

Figure 5. Experimental and analytical comparison of air
profiles along the cooling tower.
temperature profiles along the cooling tower.

view, the lower the air humidity, the greater the mass
transfer driving force, the more conducive to evapora-
tive cooling of cooling water.
Conclusion
The explicit solutions have not yet been published
before. This article has developed accurate and fast
analytical method for heat and mass transfer model in
a cooling tower. Some algebraic explicit analytical solu-
tions of the one-dimensional differential equation sets
describing heat and mass transfer process in a cooling
tower are derived. The explicit equations of heat and
mass transfer are expressed in elementary functions.
The model can directly and quickly calculate the chang-
ing rules of liquid, gas, interface temperature, and
moisture content in the air along the vertical height of
the tower. Simple analytical equations can be used to
calculate cooling tower performance without any
numerical integrations. The comparison of the analyti-
cal results with the experimental data shows that there
is a good agreement between them. Moreover, the anal-
ysis on heat and mass transfer driving force along the
cooling tower has been given. This article provided a
Guo et al. 7

quick and accurate method in rating and design calcu-

lations of cooling tower performance.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This paper is supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (grant nos 51806128 and 51879154),
Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China
(grant nos ZR2018LE011 and ZR2019MEE007), and SDUT
Figure 6. Experimental and analytical comparison of water
and Zhangdian District Integration Development Project (no.
temperature profiles along the cooling tower.
118239). These supports are gratefully acknowledged.

ORCID iD
Xiaoni Qi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3516-3278

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