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Types of cooling tower | Cooling Tower Basic

Calculations
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 1 Types of cooling tower | Cooling Tower Basic Calculations
o 1.1 Types of Cooling Towers
 1.1.1 Mechanical draft water-cooling tower:
 1.1.1.1 Forced draught cooling tower
 1.1.1.2 Induced draught cooling tower
 1.1.2 Natural draft water-cooling tower
o 1.2 Design Considerations of cooling tower
o 1.3 Operation Considerations of cooling tower (Cooling tower mass
balance)
 1.3.1 Drift Losses (D) or Windage
 1.3.2 Evaporation Losses (E )
 1.3.3 Blowdown or Draw off
 1.3.4 Cycle of Concentration (COC)
o 1.4 Cooling Tower Efficiency Calculations
 1.4.1 Cooling Tower Approach
 1.4.2 Cooling Tower Range

Cooling towers are a very important part of many process plants and power plants. The
make-up water source is used to refill water lost to evaporation. Hot water from heat
exchangers/condenser is sent to the cooling tower. After reducing the temperature of
water in cooling tower and is sent back to the condenser /exchangers or to other units
for further process.
Terminology in Cooling Tower
Drift: From a cooling tower water lost due to liquid droplets entrained in the exhaust air.
It is independent of water lost by evaporation.
Heat exchange/ Condenser – It is a device for transferring heat from one substance to
another.
Concentration : The process of increasing solids per unit volume of solution also the
amount of material dissolved in a unit volume of solution.
Usually concentration of liquid in cooling tower occurs due to evaporation that cools the
water. It is normally expressed directly as (parts per million) ppm or indirectly
as mhos conductivity.
Air Blows: By the opening in cooling tower through which air enters a tower.
Blowdown: Water discharged from the system of cooling tower to control concentration
of salts or other impurities in the circulating water
Evaporation loss: In the process of cooling tower system, water evaporated from the
circulating water into the atmosphere.
Makeup : Water added to the circulating water in cooling tower system to replace water
lost by evaporation, blowdown, drift and leakage
Drift eliminators: An assembly constructed of plastic, cement board, wood, or other
material that minimize the entrained water moisture from the discharged air.
Cooling water : Water circulated through a cooling system to remove heat from certain
areas.
Exhaust air : The mixture of air and its associated vapor leaving the cooling tower
system
Louvers : Members installed horizontally in a cooling tower wall to provide openings
through which the air enters into the system while also containing the falling water within
the tower. Usually Louvers are installed at an angle to the direction of air flow to the
cooling tower.
Fundamental Concept of Cooling Tower : Heat is transferred from water drops to
the surrounding atmospheric air by the transfer of latent heat and sensible heat.

Types of Cooling Towers


Cooling towers mainly classified into two sub-divisions
1. Mechanical draft cooling tower
2. Natural draft cooling tower

Mechanical draft water-cooling tower:


Mechanical draft cooling towers are more commonly used for cooling of water. These
mechanical draft cooling towers utilize large fans to force air through circulated
water. The water falls downward over surface of fills, which help increase the contact
time between the air and water. This helps maximize heat transfer between the air and
water.
Mechanical draft water-cooling tower consists mainly two types

1. Forced draft – In this cooling tower fans located at the air inlet
2. Induced draft – In this cooling tower fans located at the air exhaust.
Forced draught cooling tower
These take the form of a large rectangular concrete structure. The water is pumped to
the top and broken up into sprays. It falls as rain on to successive stages of boards in
the form of louvres of wood, polystyrene or metal, with notches and ribs to break up the
flow. The water flows from one stage to the next and finally arrives at the pond which
forms the base of the structure, from which it is taken by the cold water pump.

In a forced draught cooling tower, as shown in figure. The circulation of air in forced
draft cooling tower is produced by means of fans placed at the base of the tower

Induced draught cooling tower


In an induced draught cooling tower, as shown in below figure. The circulation of air is
provided by means of fans placed at the top of the tower.
They are generally induced draft cooling tower classified as counter current or cross
flow tower, descriptive of the direction of air flows relative to that of the water.
The counter current tower is expected to be more efficient, but the cross flow tower can
be operated with lower power requirement or higher vapour velocities.
Induced Draft Cooling Tower – Counter Current Flow type
Induced Draft Cooling Tower – Cross Flow type
Natural draft water-cooling tower
The cooling tower, generally packed with brushwood or wooden laths. This is a very
large tower in which the hot water encounters a natural draught which promotes cooling
of the water by convection and evaporation.

In a natural draught cooling tower, as shown in figure the circulation of air is produced
by the pressure difference of air inside and outside the cooling tower

Design Considerations of cooling tower


The efficiency of this device depends essentially on climatic conditions, in particular the
wet-bulb temperature and the relative humidity of the ambient air.
The required cooling tower design and size will be a function of following values

 Cooling range
 Web bulb temperature
 Approach to wet bulb temperature
 Mass flowrate of water (Circulation rate)
 Air velocity through tower or individual tower cell
 Tower height

The performance of cooling towers is estimated by approach and range. During the
performance assessment, portable monitoring instruments are used to measure the
following parameters:

 Dry bulb temperature of air


 Wet bulb temperature of air
 Cooling tower inlet water temperature
 Cooling tower outlet water temperature
 Electrical readings of pump and fan motors
 Exhaust air temperature
 Water flow rate
 Air flow rate

Operation Considerations of cooling tower (Cooling tower mass


balance)
Cooling tower mass balance gives an indication about make-up water requirement in
system. Cooling Tower Makeup is required due to water losses resulting from Drift,
Evaporation & Blowdown.
Water make-up (M ) = Total water losses = Drift Losses ( D) + Evaporation Losses (E )
+ Blow down Losses (B
M=D+E+B
M = Make up water Requirement in m3/hr
D = Drift Loss in m3/hr
E = Evaporation Loss in m3/hr
B = Blow Down in m3/hr

Drift Losses (D) or Windage


Drift losses may be assumed to be:
D = 0.3 to 1.0 percent of Circulating water (C ) for a natural draft cooling tower
D = 0.1 to 0.3 percent of Circulating water (C ) for an induced draft cooling tower
D = about 0.01 percent or less of Circulating water (C ) if the cooling tower has windage
drift eliminators

Evaporation Losses (E )
It is calculated on the basis of heat balance around the cooling tower

where:
C = Circulating water in m3/hr
= Latent heat of vaporization of water = 540 kcal/kg (or) 2260 kJ / kg or
Ti – To = water temperature difference from tower top to tower bottom in °C ( cooling
tower inlet hot water and outlet cold water temperature difference)
Cp = specific heat of water = 1 kcal/kg / °C (or) 4.184 kJ / kg / °C

Alternatively to find the evaporation loss by the following formula (Reference: Perry’s
Chemical Engineers Hand Book)
Evaporation loss in m3/hr = 0.00085 x 1.8 x circulation rate in m3/hr x (Ti-To) in 0C
( Hint: Theoretically the evaporation quantity for every 1,000,000 kCal heat rejected to
evaporate 1.8 m3 of water)

Blowdown or Draw off


The process of cooling water circulates the cooling tower part of water evaporates
thereby increasing solids per unit volume of solution also the amount of material
dissolved in a unit volume of solution.
To control the Cycle of Concentration blow down or Draw off is given. Blowdown can be
calculated from the formula

B = E/ (COC-1)
B = Blow Down (m3/hr)
E = Evaporation Loss (m3/hr)
COC = Cycle of Concentration.

Cycle of Concentration (COC)


The cycle of concentration is a dimensionless number. It is a ratio between parameter in
Cooling Water to the parameter in Makeup water. It can be calculated from any the
following formulae.
Cycles of concentration (COC) = Silica in Cooling Water / Silica in Makeup Water
Cycles of concentration (COC) = Ca Hardness in Cooling Water/ Ca Hardness in
Makeup water
Cycles of concentration (COC) = Conductivity of Cooling Water / Conductivity of
Makeup water
Cycles of concentration (COC) = Concentration of chlorides in circulating water
/Concentration of chlorides in make-up water
The cycle of concentration (COC) normally varies from 3.0 to 7.0 depending on the
Process Design and Manufactures Guidelines. In some large power plants,
concentration cycles of the cooling tower may be much higher.

Cooling Tower Efficiency Calculations


The efficiency of this cooling tower system depends on climatic conditions, in particular
the wet-bulb temperature and the relative humidity of the ambient air.

The required cooling tower design and size will be a function of following values
 Cooling range
 Web bulb temperature
 Approach to wet bulb temperature
 Mass flowrate of water (Circulation rate)
 Air velocity through tower or individual tower cell
 Tower height

In this calculation Cooling Tower Approach & Cooling Tower Range are important
factors

Cooling Tower Approach


Approach: The difference between the Cooling Tower Outlet water (Cold Water
Temperature) and ambient Wet Bulb Temperature is called as Approach of Cooling
Tower.
Approach of cooling tower = Cooling tower oulet water – Wet bulb temperature

Cooling Tower Range


Range: The difference between the cooling tower inlet temperature (Hot Water
Temperature) and cooling tower outlet temperature (Cold water temperature) is called
Range of Cooling Tower.Range of cooling tower = Cooling tower inlet temperature –
Cooling tower outlet temperature
Cooling Tower Efficiency Formula:
Cooling Tower Efficiency
Or Simply

Cooling Tower Efficiency


In practice, the cooling tower efficiency will be in between 65 to 70%. In summer season
the ambient air wet bulb temperature raises when compared to winter season so cooling
tower efficiency limiting in summer season.

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