DISCUSSION

For this experiment, SOLTEQ Water Cooling Tower (Model: HE 152) is used to run the
experiment. This experiment is conducted to study the effects of variables changes on the
temperature of the product which is water. Heater power, water flowrate and the blower are the
three variables that will affect the water temperature but for this experiment, we only focused on
the heater power and the water flowrate as the changing variable, meanwhile the blower were set
as constant. The blower was fully opened for both experiment. For every change in heater power
energy, the time interval for the process to occur is 10 minutes. This is to ensure that the system
is in steady state operation and to ensure the unit stabilized to carry out the experiment.
In general, cooling tower is a heat rejection device that extracts waste or undesired heat to the
atmosphere by cooling of a stream of water to a lower temperature and also known as
evaporative in which it allows a little portion of the water being cooled to evaporate into a
moving air stream which provide significant cooling to the remaining in the water stream. The
heat that was released by the water stream transferred to the air stream, then raising the airs
temperature and its relative humidity to 100% which later discharged into the atmosphere. ).
Several parameters should be considered to design a cooling tower where each of it will affect
the size, capacity and efficiency of a cooling tower.
For this experiment, we are focusing on basic knowledge to perform the experiment such as
cooling range, approach, heat load and wet-bulb temperature. Cooling range is the difference
between the hot water entering the tower and the cold water leaving the tower. Approach is the
difference between the temperature of cold water leaving tower and the wet-bulb temperature of
air. Approach is the most important parameter in determining both tower size and the cost. Heat
load is the amount of heat to be removed from the circulating water within the tower while the
wet bulb temperature is the lowest temperature that water theoretically can reach by evaporation.
Fo the first experiment, the cooling load parameter was manipulated. The experiment was carried
out with three different electric power which is 0.5 kW, 1.0 kW and 1.5 kW. Based on the result,
it showed that larger heater power will cause higher temperature in water. The calculation
showed that the approach wet bulb temperature which refer to the difference between the
temperature of water leaving the tower and the wet bulb temperature increase as heater power

increase. The change in temperature increase from 9.7C for 0.5 kW to 17.7C for 1.5 kW. This
show that the increasing of heater power will increase the temperature cooling range in cooling
tower by constant air blower and constant water flowrate.
For second experiment, the manipulated variable is the water flowrate. We study the effect of
cooling range toward different water flow rate and relationship between the flowrate and cooling
effect at 1.0 LPM, 1.5 LPM and 2.0 LPM. Based on the result obtained, the value of cooling
range showed the decreasing value which is 14C for 1.0 LPM, 8.9C for 1.5 LPM and the
lowest 6.7C for 2.0 LPM. It showed that the greater water flowrate will result in small value of
heat transfer. We also calculated the heat load based on different water flow rate which is 0.979
kW, 0.931 kW and 0.934 kW. The heat load increase as the water flow rate increase or in same
words the higher the water flow rate, the lower the cooling load. This is due to the amount of
water flows in certain time is in a small portion. So that, it make it easier for the water to be
evaporated and also removes heat to atmosphere to achieve a lower temperature thus increase the
cooling load.

CONCLUSION.
From the experiment that has been conducted we can conclude that, all objective of this
experiment is achieved. The performance of cooling tower can be characterized by heater power
and mass flow rate of water. Based on the result obtained, we can conclude that as the power
heater increase, the temperature of cooling range in cooling tower will increase as well. Beside
that, we also can conclude that the higher the water flowrate, the lower the cooling load.