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Cooling Tower IITD
Cooling Tower IITD
P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
I I T Delhi
Mass Flow of Water Vapour mv
Mass Flow of Dry Air ma
mv RuT
paV m a RaT
m a RuT pvV mv RvT
Ma Mv
M v pvV
RuT M v pv pv
0.622
M a paV M a pa pa
RuT
Local Cooling Tower Theory
Heat is transferred from water drops to the surrounding air by the transfer of sensible and latent heat
Global Conservation Laws for Evaporative Cooling
SSSF Model for Cooling Tower
mCW i CW TWi mCW e CW TW e
mCW i CW TWi mCW e CW TW e
mCW i CW TWi mCW e CW TW e
mw ma 1
Tw ha
Local Air-side control volume of fill
d
ma 1 dz
dmw dz
mw dz
dz dh
ha a dz
dT dz
Tw w dz
dz
h Tw Ta dA
~
mw ma 1
Tw ha
Mechanism of Heat Transfer in Cooling Towers
CW CW dTW KAhsa ha dV m
m air dhair
The Merkel Method
The Merkel method, developed in the 1920s, relies on
several critical assumptions to reduce the solution to a
simple manual iteration.
These assumptions are:
The resistance for heat transfer in the water film is
negligible,
The effect of water loss by evaporation on energy balance
or air process state is neglected,
The specific heat of air-stream mixture at constant pressure
is same as that of the dry air, and
The ratio of hconv/hdiff (Lewis factor) for humid air is unity.
Merkel combined equations for heat and water vapor
transfer into a single equation similar as
T1
kAV dT
MeM
m w T2 hsa ha
where:
kAV/mw = tower characteristic
k= mass transfer coefficient
A = contact area/tower volume
V = active cooling volume/plan area
mw = water flow rate
T1 = hot water temperature
T2 = cold water temperature
T = bulk water temperature
hsa = enthalpy of saturated air-water vapor mixture at bulk water temperature
(J/kg dry air)
ha = enthalpy of air-water vapor mixture (J/kg dry air )
Temperature Enthalpy Diagram of Air Water System
Tower Characteristics
Tower Characteristic (MeM or NTU) is a characteristic of
the tower that relates tower design and operating
characteristics to the amount of heat that can be
transferred.
For a given set of operating conditions, the design
constants that depend on the tower fill.
For a tower that is to be evaluated using the characteristic
curve method, the manufacturer will provide a tower
characteristic curve.
n
m w
NTU C
m a
Charts for Merkel Number
MeM
Height of Natural Draught Cooling Toer
Forced Draught Cooling Towers
SUPPLY TOWER CHARACTERISTIC
10
300FPM
y = 0.0323x3 - 0.1391x2 - 0.2112x + 2.142
KAV/L
450FPM
1 R = 0.9993
600FPM
Poly. (300FPM)
y = 0.0319x3 - 0.2744x2 + 0.5551x + 0.9513
R = 0.9991 Poly. (450FPM)
Poly. (600FPM)
0.1
0.1 1
L/G
MUNTERS 120/60 FILL 3 Height
10
450FPM
1
600FPM
y = 0.0091x2 - 0.2093x + 1.3934
R = 0.9997 Poly. (300FPM)
Poly. (450FPM)
Poly. (600FPM)
0.1
0.1 1
L/G
Generalized Equation for Cooling Tower Supply
A generalized equation for cooling tower supply can be
developed from the manufacturer curves (known as the
supply equation) and is of the form:
m
KAV m w
C u air
n
L m a
Air Side Pressure Drop
0.2
Series1
Poly. (Series1)
0.1
0
300 400 500 600 700 800
AIR VELOCITY, FPM
PRESSURE DROP ACROSS INLET LOUVERS
0.3
PRESSURE DROP , in WC
0.2
Series1
0.1
0
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
AIR VELOCITY,FPM
PRESSURE DROP ACROSS
2 FILL
wl4
0.2 wl6
wl8
wl11
0.02
300