MUHAMMAD ARSYAD BIN SAFAI

10513598 COOLING TOWER

Introduction
There are a few aims and objective of carrying out the experiment. Firstly, it is to observe the
processes occurring within a forced draught cooling tower, which includes identifying the mass and
energy balance of the substances in the cooling tower when operating at steady state. Other than
that, the effect of cooling the water load on the “Approach to Wet Bulb Temperature” is also being
investigated. Also, the driving force diagrams is drawn based on the experimental results obtained.
Lastly, a comparison of the mass transfer coefficient at a given cooling water load with previous
experimental works are also being done.

Experimental Work

Figure 1 : Diagram of the cooling tower experiment

Procedure
1. To start with, ensure that all switches should be off.

2. Open the water control valve fully.

3. Switch on the water pump.

4. Ensure that the distribution trough is fully wetted, if so pour water into the make up tank
and fill it to the gauge mark.
5. Fully open the fan inlet shutter and check that the manometer is operating as desired.

6. Allow the system to run for some time until the water level drops in the make up tank, if
that occurs top up the water back to the mark.

7. Ensure wet bulb thermometers reservoirs are full.

8. Heaters are switched on as required during the experiment.

Precaution
1. Throughout the experiment, maintain the initial liquid flowrate of 40 gs^-1 by making minor
adjustments when necessary.
2. Ensure that water temperature is not more than 50°C. Heaters are automatically switched
off by a thermostat installed in the load tank in any case this happens.
Hazards
Since this experiment involves huge volumes of water close to electrical appliances, it is likely that
electrocution may happen, hence it is very important that to ensure that the appliances are well
insulated and its internal parts are not exposed to water. Also, since the water stays for a long time
in the tanks, there might be a possibility of bacteria growing. Hence, it is essential that the water is
being changed regularly and if possible ionic water is used instead.

Results and Discussion

Theory
Using the Regnault/August/Apjohn equation, pressure of water vapour,𝑝𝑐 can be obtained by:

𝑝𝑐 = 𝑝𝑠𝑎𝑡 𝑤 − 6.66 × 10−4 𝑝𝑡 (𝑡𝑑 − 𝑡𝑤 )

= 14.298 – (6.666 x 10^-4) x 1025.8(20.6 – 12.3)

= 8.62 mbar
Saturation pressure at temperature 20.6°C is 24.264 mbar, hence relative humidity can be calculated
by (8.62/24.264) x 100% = 36%

By interpolating the values on thermodynamic table for pressure= 8.62 mbar, the saturation
temperature obtained is 4.83°C. Since the value of air inlet wet bulb temperature is bigger than this,
it is superheated vapour and enthalpy can be calculated by using formula:
ℎ = ℎ𝑔 + 𝐶𝑃𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 × 𝑑𝑒𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡

= 2510 + 1.9(20.6-4.83)

= 2540kJ𝑘𝑔−1
The specific water vapour volume can be found from from the gas equation,
𝑅0 𝑇
𝑉=
𝑀𝑃
(8.3143 × 10^3) × 293.6
= 18 ×0.00862 ×105

= 157.3 𝑚 3 𝑘𝑔−1

Hence, this volume of air will contain 1kg of water vapour with enthalpy values of 2540kJ𝑘𝑔−1

Using Dalton’s Law,

𝑝𝑎 = 𝑝𝑡 − 𝑝𝑐
= 1.0258 – 0.00862
= 1.017 bar
𝑝𝑎 𝑉
𝑚̇ =
𝑅𝑎 𝑇
(1.017×105 )157.3
= 287.1 ×293.6
= 190 kg
Enthalpy calculated relative to 0.01°C can be calculated as:

𝐻 = 𝑚𝐶𝑝 (𝑡 − 0.01)

= 190 x 1.005 x (20.6-0.01)

= 3932kJ

Since 113.52𝑚 3 of air will contain 1kg of water vapour with enthalpy 2540kJ and 190kg of dry air
with enthalpy 3932kJ, hence 191kg of air will have enthalpy equal to the sum of both the enthalpy,
with a value of 6472kJ.
6472
Specific enthalpy of this mixture of air can be given by, = 33.9𝑘𝐽𝑘𝑔 −1
191

Ratio of enthalpy of dry air/water vapour mixture per kg of dry air:

6472
ℎ= = 34.1𝑘𝐽(𝑘𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑖𝑟)−1
190
𝑉 157.3
Specific volume of mixture, 𝑣 = 𝑚 = 191
= 0.824𝑚 3 𝑘𝑔−1
157.3
Specific volume of dry air, 𝑣𝑑𝑟𝑦 = 190
= 0.828𝑚 3 (𝑘𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑖𝑟)−1
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑉𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑟 1
Specific humidity (𝜔) = 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑖𝑟
= 190 = 5.26 × 10−3

Mass and energy balance

Values from run 1 are used for these calculations
̇ 𝑥 16
Mass flowrate of dry air, 𝑚̇𝑎 = 0.0137√𝑣 = 0.0137√0.83(1+0.0058)=0.06𝑘𝑔𝑠 −1
𝑎𝐵 ×(1+𝜔𝐵 )

𝑚𝑒 0.117
Make up rate of water, 𝑚̇ 𝑒 = 𝑦
= 600
= 1.95 × 10−4 𝑘𝑔𝑠 −1

From interpolation of thermodynamic table, specific enthalpy of make up water at 20.6°C:

ℎ𝑒 = 85.92𝑘𝐽𝑘𝑔−1
Using the equation below, heating input can be calculated,

𝑄̇ − 𝑃 = ∆𝐻̇ + ∆𝐾̇ 𝐸

𝑄̇ = 0.2𝑘𝑊

Enthalpy change between inlet and outlet, ∆𝐻 = 𝐻̇𝑜𝑢𝑡 − 𝐻̇𝑖𝑛

= 𝑚̇𝑎 (ℎ𝐵 − ℎ𝐴 ) − 𝑚̇𝑒 ℎ𝑒

=0.06(35 − 36) − (1.95 × 10−4 )85.92 = 0.0768𝑘𝑊

Mass flowrate of water in make up tank, 𝑚̇𝑒 = 𝑚̇𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝐵 − 𝑚̇𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝐴

=𝑚̇𝑎 (𝜔𝐵 − 𝜔𝐴 )

= 0.06(0.0058-0.0048) = 6 × 10−5 𝑘𝑔𝑠 −1

∆𝐻 = 𝐻̇𝑜𝑢𝑡 − 𝐻̇𝑖𝑛
𝑚̇𝑎 (ℎ𝐵 − ℎ𝐴 ) + 𝑚̇𝑤 𝐶𝑝𝑤 (𝑡𝑑 − 𝑡𝑐 ) − 𝑚̇𝑒 ℎ𝑒

= 0.06(35-36) + 0.04 x 4.2 (12.6-12.8) – (1.95 × 10−4 ) x 85.92

= - 0.11 kW

Discussion
By comparison, the value of specific enthalpy of inlet air obtained by psychometric chart is higher
than the value obtained by calculations, but only by a mere 2kJkg^-1. Hence the value obtained by
calculation is acceptable.

At the appendix, end conditions such as specific enthalpy, volume of outlet air and humidity is
calculated using the psychometric chart for run 1 to 6 and is tabulated there as Table Y.

From the data provided of run 1 to 6 (refer appendix table X) an observation is made on how the
temperature measurements are affected by various values of heating load, water flowrate and
water make up quantity. As water flow out of the cooling tower, it can be seen that there is a
significant temperature drop from its inlet temperature signalling that heat are being transferred
from the water to the air stream along the way. Also, from the graph below, it is clearly seen that as
the heating load is increased, the approach to wet bulb also increase. Run 4 to 6 are plotted that
way since it have the same heating load.

Approach to wet bulb against heating

load
Approach to wet bulb/°C

6
5.6
4.7
4 4.1
3
2.6
2

0 0.3
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Heating load/kW

Conclusion
Based on the experiments and the calculations obtained, it can be seen that there is transfer of heat
from the water to the air stream due to driving force, which in this case is the temperature
difference between both of the system. Also, it can be concluded that making the flowrates of air
and water higher reduces the approach to wet bulb, since there is not enough time for the larger
value of heat to be transferred.

References
1. Thermodynamic and Transport Property Fluid Fifth Edition, arranged by G.F.C Rogers and Y.R
Mayhew

2. P.A HILTON LTD EXPERIMENTAL OPERATING AND MAINTAINENCE MANUAL

3. Cooling tower, Wikipedia

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower#:~:text=A%20cooling%20tower%20is%20a,stream%20
to%20a%20lower%20temperature.)
 Appendices
Run T1/°C, T2/°C, T3/°C T4/°C T5/°C T6/°C Heating Make up Water
(±0.1°C) (±0.1°C) (±0.1°C) (±0.1°C) (±0.1°C) (±0.1°C) load/kW quantity/𝑐𝑚 3 flowrate/𝑔𝑠 −1
(±5𝑐𝑚 3) (±2𝑔𝑠 −1 )

1 20.6 12.3 17.9 12.6 12.8 12.6 0.1 117 40

2 21.2 13.0 17.8 15.7 19.3 15.6 0.6 206 40
3 21.4 13.3 20.1 18.1 23.7 17.4 1.1 228 40
4 21.6 13.8 22.5 20.4 28.1 19.4 1.6 376 40
5 21.8 13.9 22.7 20.6 30.4 18.6 1.6 360 30
6 21.7 14.0 22.0 20.9 35.2 17.0 1.6 358 20
Table X

Run Specific Specific Specific Specific Specific Specific

enthalpy of enthalpy humidity of humidity of volume of enthalpy of
inlet of outlet inlet outlet outlet water make
air/𝑘𝐽𝑘𝑔−1 air/c air/ 𝑘𝑔𝑘𝑔 −1 air/𝑘𝑔𝑘𝑔 −1 air/𝑚 3 𝑘𝑔−1 up
tank/𝑚 3 𝑘𝑔−1
1 36 35 0.0048 0.0058 0.83 85.92
2 38 44.5 0.00625 0.01025 0.84 88.84
3 37 51.5 0.00625 0.01225 0.85 89.68
4 38 59 0.0065 0.0145 0.86 90.52
5 39 59 0.00675 0.014 0.86 91.36
6 39.5 61 0.00675 0.01525 0.86 90.94
Table Y