Cooling Tower Heat Transfer Fundamentals

07/12/2017
By Brad Buecker

The continued planning, construction, and operation of combined

cycle power plants (and other energy and industrial facilities) is
introducing many new personnel to numerous water-related issues,
including those related to cooling. A critical unit operation at many of
these facilities is energy transfer in one or more cooling towers.

This article examines important cooling tower heat transfer

fundamentals, and modern methods for maintaining proper chemistry
control in cooling systems.

A critical element of operation at many combined cycle power plants

is energy transfer in one or more cooling towers. There are important
cooling tower heat transfer fundamentals and modern methods for
maintaining proper chemistry control in cooling systems.

Cooling Tower Heat Transfer

The basic cooling tower process is outlined in Figure 1.

In the words of an excellent reference manual on cooling,

"Evaporation is utilized to its fullest extent in cooling towers, which
are designed to expose the maximum transient water surface to the
maximum flow of air - for the longest period of time." This statement
highlights a fundamental aspect of cooling towers that those new to
the industry may not fully recognize; the majority of heat transfer in a
cooling tower (typically 65 to 85 percent depending upon atmospheric
conditions) is due to evaporation of a small amount of the circulating
water. This aspect will be outlined in a subsequent example.

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 Outline of Cooling Tower Process

A very important concept for understanding cooling tower heat

transfer is that of "wet bulb" temperature. Consider a warm summer
day with 90°F shade temperature at 40 percent relative humidity. A
standard thermometer would naturally read 90o, which is the "dry
bulb" temperature. Now, attach another thermometer alongside the
dry bulb thermometer but with a soaked piece of cloth around the
bulb of the second thermometer, and put both on a swivel such that
the thermometers can be swirled very rapidly through the air. This
simple and common device is known as a sling psychrometer. After a
while, the dry bulb thermometer will still read 90°F but the other
thermometer will read 71.2°F. This latter reading is the wet bulb
temperature, and is the lowest temperature that can be achieved by
evaporative cooling.

No matter how efficient, a cooling tower can never chill the

recirculating water to the wet bulb temperature, and at some point
costs and space requirements limit cooling tower size. The separation
in temperature between the chilled water and wet-bulb value is
known as the approach. The data below show the relative size of a
cooling tower for a range of approach temperatures.

The table indicates that a "standard" sized cooling tower should

approach the wet bulb temperature within about 15°F. The curve
becomes asymptotic as approach temperatures narrow. Thus, for any
cooling tower application at some point the law of diminishing returns
takes over. This data is only for general consideration, as the
approach temperature may be significantly influence by several
factors including the type of cooling tower fill, which will be explored
later in greater detail.

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The data needed to calculate heat transfer by air cooling and
evaporation has been compiled in a graph known as a psychrometric
chart.

All versions of psychrometric charts are "very busy" and at times

difficult to follow, but a psychrometric chart provides data for the
following parameters.

 Dew point temperature

 Dry bulb temperature
 Enthalpy (Btu/lbm)
 Humidity ratio (absolute value of moisture in air on a lb/lb basis)
 Relative humidity
 Specific volume (ft3/lbm)
 Wet bulb temperature

If any two properties of air are known, all of the other properties can
be determined. Programs are available on-line that will calculate
psychrometric parameters with a few simple user inputs.

At this point, we will populate Figure 1 with some real-world data and
calculate the mass flow rate of air needed to cool 150,000 gpm of
tower inlet water to the desired temperature, and also calculate the
water lost by evaporation.

The first step is to determine the energy balance around the tower.

(ma1*ha1) + (mw3*hw3) = (ma2*ha2) + (mw4*hw4), where Eq. 1

ma = mass flow rate of dry air; ha = enthalpy of dry air streams; hw

= enthalpy of water streams

Utilizing algebra, the fact that ma1 = ma2, and that a mass balance
on the water flow is m4 = m3 - (w2 -w1)*ma, where w = humidity

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ratio; the energy balance equation can be rewritten in the following
form.

ma = (m3*(h4 - h3))/((h1 - h2) + (w2 - w1)*h4 Eq. 2

From a psychrometric chart and the steam tables, we find the

following.

h1 = 24.6 Btu/lbm

h2 = 52.5 Btu/lbm

h3 = 72.0 Btu/lbm h4 = 45.1 Btu/lbm

w1 = 0.0075 lbs moisture per lb of dry air

w2 = 0.0286 lbs moisture per lb of dry air

So, with an inlet cooling water flow rate of 150,000 gpm (1,251,000
lb/min), the calculated air flow is 1,248,000 lb/min, which by chance
in this case is very close to the cooling water flow rate. (Obviously,
the air flow requirement would change significantly depending upon
air temperature, inlet water temperature and flow rate, and other
factors, and that is why cooling towers typically have multiple cells,
often including fans that have adjustable speed control.)

Cooling Tower Example Conditions

The volumetric air flow rate can be found using the psychrometric
chart, where inlet air at 68°F and 50 percent RH has a tabulated

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specific volume of 13.46 ft3/lb. Plugging this value into the mass flow
rate gives a volumetric flow rate of almost 17,000,000 ft3/min.

The amount of water lost to evaporation can be simply calculated by

a mass balance of water only. We have already seen that,

m4 = m3- (w2 - w1)*ma Eq. 3

Utilizing the data above, m 4 = 146,841 gpm. Thus, the water lost to
evaporation is, m3 - m4 = 3,159 gpm

Note that only about 2 percent evaporation is sufficient to provide so

much cooling.

This is due to the fact that the latent heat of evaporation at common
atmospheric conditions is close to 1,000 Btu/lbm. Thus, as water
evaporates it carries away a great deal of heat.

Example of Cooling Tower Film Fill

A simpler method is available to more quickly calculate the typical

evaporation from a cooling tower. The standard formula is,

E = (f * R * DT)/1000, where

Eq. 4 E = Evaporation in gpm

R = Recirculation rate in gpm

DT = Temperature difference (range) between the warm and cooled

circulating water (°F)

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f = A correction factor that helps to account for sensible heat transfer,
where

f (average) is often considered to be 0.65 to 0.85, but will rise in

summer and decline in winter.

The factor of 1,000 is, of course, the approximate latent heat of

vaporization (Btu/lb) of water. To check the general accuracy of this
calculation, consider the previous problem we solved in detail.
Evaporation was 3,159 gpm with a recirculation rate of 150,000 gpm
and a range of 27°F. This gives a correction factor of 0.78, which is
quite in line with where ƒ should be for the conditions shown.

This example was taken at sea-level conditions. Conditions can be

significantly different at higher elevations.

The Cooling Technology Institute (www.cti.org) offers more

sophisticated programs (and much other extremely useful
information) to perform cooling tower calculations.

Liquid-to-Gas Ratio
A very important factor with regard to cooling towers or other
processes of this type, including wet flue gas scrubbers, is the liquid-
to-gas ratio (L/G). This parameter can also be evaluated from
Equation 1, where the enthalpy of the water streams is simply the
heat capacity of the water multiplied by the temperature. Designating
ma = G and mw = L from Equation 1 transforms it to:

Cp*L3*t3 + G*ha1 = Cp*L4*t4 + G*ha2 Eq. 5

We know that L4 = L3*G(w2 - w1), and using some simplifying algebra,
elimination of a negligible flow term, and that tw2 - tw1 is the "Range"
between inlet and outlet cooling water temperature, Equation 5
reduces to:

ha2 = ha1 + L/G*Range

Thus, it can be seen that the heat transfer is significantly influenced

by the liquid-to-gas ratio. So, the more that liquid/gas interaction can
be enhanced, the better the heat transfer properties.

This explains the intensive past and continuing research into cooling
tower fill design. Most towers now are equipped with some variety of
film fill.

As the name film fill implies, the material induces the incoming return
water to form a film that greatly increases its surface area. Critical to
proper performance of film fill are correct design and maintenance of
the water distribution system above the fill.

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Also critical, and a subject that will be covered in a future article, is
cooling water chemical treatment to prevent fill fouling, especially
from microbiological colonies and silt. Not only will fouling inhibit heat
transfer,

Author
Brad Buecker is a senior process specialist in the Water Technologies
group of Kiewit Engineering Group Inc.

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