Bangladesh University of Engineering and

Technology

COOLING TOWER
Course Number: ME 310 Group No: C25
Course Title: Thermo Fluid System Design

Submitted By
 Sakib Sadat Shondhi (1510159)
 Khalid Zobaid Adnan (1510167)
 Nafisa Raihana (1510171)
 Khondaker Rakiba Sarwar Orin (1510179)

SUPERVISED BY

 Dr Md Zahurul Haq,
Professor, Dept. of ME, BUET
 Musanna Galib,
Lecturer, Dept. of ME, BUET
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all we would like to thank Almighty for the successful submission of our
project within time. It is our privilege to express our sincere regards to our teacher
A.K.M. Monjur Morshed Sir & Rakib Sir for their support and expertise. Their
guidance throughout this project was paramount. Besides, their constant urge to
complete our project helped us to complete this project in time.

We take this opportunity to thank all our lecturers who have directly or indirectly
helped in our project. We pay our respect and love to our parents and all other
family members and friends for their love and encouragement throughout our
project. Last but not the least we express our thanks to our friends for their
cooperation and support.

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ABSTRACT

Laboratory scale cooling tower experiment is a replication of cooling tower that

is being used in industries processes. The aim of this experiment is to study the
cooling load performance at a range of water and air flow rates. Besides, the
amount of heat energy transfer and mass and energy balance can also be studied
in this closed system. By changing the parameter on the laboratory scale cooling
tower, the cooling performance of the cooling tower can be affected.

From this experiment, it is known that the change in enthalpy of air and water is
much higher at a higher blower speed at a constant flow rate of water. At the
same blower speed, the change in enthalpy also increases as the flow rate of
water increase. Although the change in enthalpy of air from the result is lower
than the change in enthalpy of water but the result are still acceptable. The
results also abide the first law of thermodynamic which is the law of conservation
of energy.

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 TABLES OF CONTENT

CONTENT PAGE
Introduction 4
Problem Statement 5
Objective 5
Working Principle 6-7
Design Drawing 8
Calculation 9
Final Result 10
Conclusion 11
Cost Analysis 12-13
Reference 14

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 INTRODUCTION

Cooling tower is a specialized heat rejecting device. It is a heat exchanger that

involves the direct contact of hot water and cool dry air to extracts waste heat
and release it to the atmosphere. During this heat transfer process, a small
amount of water is evaporated causing the air temperature and the air humidity
to increase to a certain degree. A cooling tower is applied in different fields and
industries including oil refineries, petrochemical industries, nuclear power plant,
food processing plant and electric power generation plant.

Water which has been heated by industries processes is pumped to the top of
the cooling tower. Nozzle is used to spray the hot water evenly around the
cooling tower. In an open circuit cooling tower, hot water flows down the cooling
tower through gravitational forces to pass through a series of labyrinth like
packing structure. This is because the packed column increases the contact area
of hot water and dry air to maximize the air-water interface. As the water flows
through the cooling tower, electric air blower is used to supply the flow of air so
that heat exchange is able to occur between the hot water and dry air. After the
water is cooled down, it is sent back to the industries processing unit to absorb
heat.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

Cold air is supplied through the floor across the face of server cabinets. Cabinet
components emit hot water which makes its way to the ceiling through tube. In
this experiment we have to cool down the hot water with help of dry cool water.

OBJECTIVE

To study the performance at different ranges cooling load and inlet temperature of
cooling tower.

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Working Principle of Cooling Tower

The theory behind the operation of the cooling tower is the First Law of
Thermodynamics, which is the conservation of energy. In simpler terms, the
energy that enters the system must exit the system; energy can neither be
created nor destroyed, just transformed from one form to another.

Energy that enters the cooling tower is in the form of hot water. (Other energy
contributions such as heat generation from friction of both air and water, energy
losses from pipes, etc. are ignored.) This hot water was cooled from temperature
T1 to a temperature of T2. The cooling of the hot water was in the form of forced
convection3 by which ambient air at T1 was blown over the hot water and exited
the cooling tower at some temperature T2. Both the entrance and exit
temperatures of the air and water were recorded. Once this data is recorded, an
energy balance can be conducted on the system.

An energy balance is a form of bookkeeping that accounts for the energy entering
and leaving the system. The main component of the energy balance is enthalpy
which is defined as:

H = U + PV. (1)

Where H is enthalpy, U is internal energy, P is pressure, and V is volume.

The combined terms U+PV is enthalpy, which means to heat.1 Enthalpy can be

calculated or referenced from tables of data for the fluid being used. In the
Engineering 435 laboratory, the fluids used by the cooling tower are air and
water, whose enthalpy values can be obtained from a thermodynamics textbook.
For example: Since both the initial and final temperatures of the input hot water
and the output cool water were measured, the temperature Tin can be referenced
and the enthalpy (BTU/lbm, or KJ/kg) can be recorded. The enthalpy of the output
cooled water can be similarly referenced and an energy balance can be conducted
for the water.

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The equation below displays the general method to conduct an energy balance:

in =   (2)
out

Where  H = H in - H out. A similar method is employed for conducting the energy
balance for air entering and leaving the system.

The change in enthalpy for air can be determined form either of two methods.
Since the air is at low pressure, it can be treated as an ideal gas and the enthalpy
change can be calculated through the use of the following equation:

H = Cp T (3)

Where  H is the change in enthalpy,  T is the change in temperature, and Cp is

the specific heat with respect to constant pressure. 

Since the specific heat relation does not take into account the percent of water in
the air, a psychometric chart is used to determine the enthalpy change between
the entrance and exit air. In order for the psychometric chart to be used
effectively, some information is needed about the input and output air.

The information needed to reference the psychometric chart is the dry bulb and
wet bulb temperatures of the inlet and outlet air. Both the input and output air
flow is measured with a sling psychomotor. The sling psychomotor is an
instrument that has two thermometers. The thermometer for measuring the wet
bulb temperature has a wetted cotton sleeve over the bulb end, while the dry
bulb thermometer is a regular thermometer. Once the wet and dry bulb
temperatures of the inlet and outlet air have been measured, each can be
referenced on the psychometric chart and the enthalpies obtained. Once the
enthalpies for the inlet and outlet water and air conditions are known, energy
balance can be conducted on the system.

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Design Drawing

8
Design Calculation
Design specifications:

1. hot water inlet temperature:50 degree celcius

2. cold water outlet:40 degree celcius
3. air inlet:30 degree celcius
4. air outlet:20 degree celcius
5. water flow rate:1.5 m^3/hr
6. relative humidity:0.8
7. wet bulb temp:27.136

now we can look into the calculation part,

1. Range: hot water inlet –cold water outlet temperature=50-40=10

2. Approach: cold water outlet –wet bulb temp=12.84
3. cooling tower effectiveness :Range/approach=0.44
4. evaporation rate: 0.00085*1.8*water flow rate*10=0.023m^3/hr
5. blow down losses depends on c.o.c:0.0038 m^3/ hr
6. make up water :0.0263 m^3/hr
7. mass flow of water:1491KG/HR
8. mass flow of air :1122.68kg/hr
9. Liquid to gas ratio ,L/G:1.32

Performance calculation:

Cooling capacity:0.7564 tower ton

Air flow rate:979.24 m^3/kg

Sizing calculation:

Air fan diameter: 0.305 m

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spec fan : 0.305 m
Area: 0.073061835 m^2
Velocity: 3.723723911 m/s
Base area: 0.14612367 m^2
Sidelength
: 0.382261259 m
1.254138028 feet

FINAL RESULT:
The cooling tower was able to cool down 36 degree celcius water to room
temperature 20 degree celcius within 30 minutes of time as it was circulating
.

Which is 2.7 watt of power ,at relative humidity 67 percent

Cooling range: for one pass cooling range is approximately 1 degree celcius
or less .

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 CONCLUSION

We first started this project wondering how cooling tower worked and how we
were going to analysis them. All cooling tower operate on the principle of
removing heat from water by evaporating a small portion of the water that is
recirculated through the unit. The project is consist of experiments of
investigation of the effect of different power of heater toward cooling range of
cooling tower and the effect of cooling range toward different water flow rate.
From this project we can conclude that the higher water flow rate, the lower the
energy in the form of heat transfer or release and the higher the power and the
lower the energy transfer.

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 COST ANALYSIS
Material Selection Decision Matrix

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Cost Analysis Of Cooling Tower

Serial N0. Product Amount Cost(TK)

1. Water Pump 1 pc 1500
2. Draft Fan 1 pc 1350
3. Mild Steel Sheets 40 Square ft 1000
4. Wire-gauge (Fills) 4 pc 800
5. Heater 1 pc 500
6. Pipe 2”Dia 10 ft 1500
7. Pipe Fittings - 1000
8. Others - 350
Total 8000

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REFERENCES

1. https://www.slideshare.net/azlan.skool/cooling-tower-full-report?
fbclid=IwAR0MZCkmUgb0fjDQNcQpOnfn5hBenrVjUErSC4S4Wz1gmA5d-
05T7xHwqUA
2. http://chem.engr.utc.edu/ench435/2002/Reports/final-
Cooling_Tower_Analysis.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR03i2tUXVf0qvfnMQT87N0Rw1qr6orY76n3laHfE9koNxuGzn4D4
hcFD48
3. http://www.academia.edu/28948993/Cooling_Tower_Lab_Report?
fbclid=IwAR2HGVFiCYvIiSGIcBBhUYAPJNeDt_tIlMgXy42WNTexkWLVxZgHw
ybgi4U

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