HEAT TRANSFER OPERATIONS: COOLING TOWERS

The mechanism of heat and mass transfer between ambient air and water inside a cooling tower
is illustrated in Figure 1.
ha,o ma,o Tw,i mw,i

Evaporative Water

Tdb,o me

AIR WATER

Qrej Tm mm
makeup water

ha,i ma,i Tw,o mw,o

Figure 1.0. Schematic representation of heat and mass transfer in a Cooling Tower

MASS AND ENERGY BALANCE

Four governing equations can be used to express the mass and energy balance in the system:

(1) Mass conservation of air:

ma , i me ma , o (1) (1)

(2) Heat conservation of air:

ma , i ha , i Qrej Qe ma , o ha , o (2)

(3) Mass conservation of condenser water:

mw,i me mm mw,o (3)

(4) Heat conservation of condenser water:

mw,iTw,i C pw Qrej mmTmC pw mw,oTw,o C pw (4)

The derivative of saturation air enthalpy with respect totemperature, Cs, is introduced and used
to formulate the cooling load model. a is also added as a ratio of theactual heat transfer amount
to the theoretical maximum amount. (5)

Qrej a ma hs ,w,i ha ,i

Analogous to a dry counter flow heat exchanger, the effectiveness, a , is evaluated by

1 e NTU (1m )
*

a * NTU (1 m* )
(6)
1 m e

whileNTU, m*, and Csarecalculated respectively by

(1 n )
m (7)
NTU c a
mw

m C
m * a s (8)

mw C pw

dh
Cs s
dT T Tw
(9)
hs ,w,i hs ,w,o

Tw,i Tw,o

where, c and n are empirical constants specific to a particular cooling tower design.Since Cs
depends on outlet conditions of cooling tower Tw,o and hs,w,o , it cannot be computed
directly. Outlet conditions of cooling tower need to be guessed initially at the reasonable values,
and iterative computation is engaged for Equation (1) - (9) to calculate the ultimate results.

In the governing equations, there are nine known parameters including: six input variables, ha,i,
ma,i,mw,i, mm,Tm,Tw,i; a constant Cpw; and two measurable output variables mw,o, Tw,o, and five
unknowns: three output variables: ha,o, ma,o, and Qrej; and two unmeasurable variablesmeand Qe.
As the unknown variables are more than the number governing equations, it is insufficient to
determine all outlet conditions by the four governing equations alone, additional equations that
could depict the characteristics of the cooling tower should be added.

NOMENCLATURE
Cs: derivative of saturated ha with respect to Tw
me: mass flowrate of evaporation
mm: mass flowrate of makeup water
NTU: number of transfer units
Qe: heat evaporation rate is loss water
Tw: temperature of water
ha: enthalpy of air
ma: mass flowrate of air
mw: mass flowrate of water
m: ratio of air to water effective capacitance rate
Tm: temperature of makeup water
Qrej: heat rejection rate of cooling tower
a : heat transfer effectiveness