COOLING TOWER

FUNCTION OF COOLING TOWER

The exhaust steam after power generation is passed through the surface
condenser where the steam is condensed to water causing a phase change

The latent heat of this phase change is transferred to the cooling water
circulated through the condenser

Hot water is fed to the cooling tower wherein the water is cooled and

collected in the cold water basin. The same water is again circulated through
the condenser continuously

During this process water is lost by drift and evaporation in the cooling
tower. Also some quantity of water is drained as blow down to maintain the
water quality. Make up water is added to compensate the above losses

TYPES OF COOLING TOWER

Cooling Tower is of two types namely

Natural Draft Towers
Mechanical Draft Towers

Forced Draft
Induced draft

NATURAL DRAFT TOWERS

Natural draft towers are also called as hyperbolic towers. They

utilize no fans to create air flow through the tower.

Natural draft towers use very large concrete chimneys to introduce

air through the media. The design of the chimney effect causes the
cold air at the bottom of the tower push the warmer air to the top.

Water is distributed as evenly as possible at the top of the tower and

allowed to drop through the air.

Packing or fills inside the tower keeps the water evenly distributed
and increases the surface area. Greater the surface area greater the
cooling efficiency.

NATURAL DRAFT COOLING TOWER

MECHANICAL DRAFT TOWERS

Mechanical draft towers uses fans to move large quantities of air

through the tower. In general mechanical draft fans are classified as
forced draft and Induced draft. In forced draft tower fans are present
on the side or base but in Induced draft tower fans are present at
the top.

INDUCED DRAFT COOLING TOWER

PERFORMANCE OF THE COOLING TOWER

"Range" is the difference between the cooling tower water inlet and
outlet temperature

"Approach" is the difference between the cooling tower outlet cold

water temperature and ambient wet bulb temperature.

Cooling tower effectiveness (in percentage) is the difference

between cooling water inlet temperature and ambient wet bulb
temperature or in other words it is = Range / (Range + Approach).

Cooling capacity is the heat rejected in kCal/hr or TR, given as

product of mass flow rate of water, specific heat and temperature
difference.

Evaporation loss is the water quantity evaporated for cooling duty

Evaporation Loss (m3/hr) = 0.00085 x 1.8 x circulation rate
(m3/hr) x (T1-T2)