TABLE OF CONTENTS

No
1

Item
Introduction

Theory

Objectives

Procedure

Results

Discussions

Conclusions

Abstract

References

Page

INTRODUCTION
A cooling tower is a specialized heat exchanger in which air and water are
brought into direct contact with each other in order to reduce the water's
temperature. A cooling tower is used to cool and circulate water used in settings
such as oil refineries, petrochemical and other chemical plants, thermal power
stations, and HVAC systems for cooling buildings. Cooling towers extract waste heat
to the atmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature. As
this occurs, a small volume of water is evaporated, reducing the temperature of the
water being circulated through the tower.
The thermal performance of cooling towers is often taken for granted and, for
many people in the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning industry. A cooling tower
is a heat rejection device, which extracts waste heat to the atmosphere though the
cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature. Common applications for cooling
towers are providing cooled water for air-conditioning, manufacturing and electric
power generation. The smallest cooling towers are designed to handle water
streams of only a few gallons of water per minute supplied in small pipes like those
might see in a residence, while the largest cool hundreds of thousands of gallons per
minute supplied in pipes as much as 15 feet (about 5 meters) in diameter on a large
power plant.

THEORY
First law of thermodynamics state that the energy that enters the system must exit
the system; energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just transformed from one
form to another. This law is related to the operation of cooling tower.
Energy that enters the cooling tower is in the form of hot water. (Other energy
contributions such as heat generation from friction of both air and water, energy
losses from pipes, etc. are ignored.) This hot water was cooled from temperature T
to a temperature of T. The cooling of the hot water was in the form of forced
convection by which ambient air at T was blown over the hot water and exited the
cooling tower at some temperature T.
Daltons and Gibbs laws
Air is a mixture of dry air (oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases) and water vapour. The
behaviour of such mixture is set out in the laws of Dalton and Gibbs from which the
following may be deduced:
1. The total pressure of the air is equal to the sum of the pressure which the dry
air and the water vapour each and alone would exert if they were to occupy
the volume of the mixture at the temperature of the mixture.
2. The dry air and the water vapour respectively obey their normal property
relationship at their partial pressure.
3. The enthalpy of the mixture may be found by adding together the enthalpies
which the dry air and water vapour each would have as the sole occupant of
the space occupied by the mixture at the same temperature.

Figure 1: Cooling tower

OBJECTIVES
At the end of this experiment students are able:
1. To determine end state properties of air and H 2O from tables or charts, and
the application of the steady flow equation to selected systems to draw up
energy and mass balances.
2. To determine the relationship between the cooling load and cooling range of a
cooling tower.
Objective 1:
1. Prepare the unit and allow to stabilize under the following suggested
conditions :
a. Orifice differential
16 mm H2O
b. Water flow rate
40 gm/s
c. Cooling load
1.0 kW
2. Take note all temperatures and flow rates at the desired time interval.
3. Determine the quantity of make-up water which has been supplied to the
make-up tank within the time interval.
4. Repeat the experiment with other water or air flow rates and with another
load.
Objective 2:
1. Prepare the unit with selected packing and set to stabilize with no load, at the
desired water flow rate and at a certain orifice differential.
2. Increase the cooling load slowly to a certain amount without changing the
water or air flow rates and make the observations at 1.0 and 1.5 kW cooling
load.
3. Repeat test at:
a. Other water flow rate
b. Other air flow rate

PROCEDURE
Pre-experiment
1. All the valves and switches were ensured that it was set at the intended
position.
2. Air bubbles and air traps was ensured to be out of the system i.e. pumps and
apparatus.
3. The manometer level, orifice, float valve, wet bulb thermometer, was checked
to ensure that they operate in their optimized operating mode.
4. The units are then ensured that it is ready to be used before setting up the
desired conditions.
Objective1:
1. With the following conditions, the unit was prepared and was left to be allowed
to stabilize.
a. Orifice differential
16 mm H2O
b. Water flow rate
40 gm s-1
c. Cooling load
1.0 kW
2. With each time interval, the temperature and the flow rates was observed.
3. The quantity of the make-up water which has been supplied to the make-up
tank within the time interval was determined.
4. The experiment was repeated with other water or air flow rates with another
load.
Objective 2:
1. The unit was prepared with the selected packing and was set to stabilize with
no load, at the desired water flow rate and at a certain orifice differential.
2. The cooling load was increased slowly to a certain amount without changing
the water or air flow rates and an observation was made at 1.0 and 1.5 kW
cooling load.
3. The test was repeated at these two conditions:
a. Other water flow rate
b. Other air flow rate

RESULTS
Results and analysis
Test no
1
2
3
4
5
Packing interval
C
C
C
C
C
Packing density
220
220
220
220
220
Air inlet dry bulb
27.8
27.8
28.4
28.8
28.3
Air inlet wet bulb
23.7
23.6
23.5
23.7
23.6
Air outlet dry bulb
22.4
22.1
22.2
22.5
22.5
Air outlet wet bulb
21.4
22.0
21.8
22.1
21.9
Water inlet temperature
21.7
21.5
21.9
22.2
21.9
Water outlet temperature
21.0
20.8
21.5
21.2
21.4
Water make-up temperature
27.8
27.8
28.8
28.8
28.3
(assume same as ambient
dry bulb temperature)
Orifice differential
16
16
10
5
15
Water flow rate
48
40
40
40
30
Cooling load
10
1.0
0.5
0.5
1.5
Make-up quantity
90
0
174
0
0
Time interval
300
300
300
300
300
Pressure drop across
13
13.5
8.5
5
12
packing
Table 1: Overall data from the experiment of cooling tower

6
C
220
28.4
23.5
22.3
21.6
22.4
20.8
28.4

15
20
1.5
0
300
12.9

Result for objective 1:

Fig. 1: A graph of temperature against its cooling load.
22.5

22

21.5

Water entering tower;

Temperature [C]
Water leaving tower;
Temperature [C]

21

20.5

20
0.5

1.5

DISCUSSIONS
Objective 1:
1. Is mass continuity evident from the experimental results?
Is the amount of make-up water the same as the amount gained as increased
humidity?
How much mass is unaccounted for?
Can the error be explained by the uncertainty in the measurements?
Indicate other likely source of error in the mass balance.
Matter cannot be created nor destroyed but it rather simply changes
into a different form of matter. This is known as the principle of conservation of
mass. This principle is applied to fixed volume or known as control volume.
The mass entering per unit time is equal to the mass leaving per unit time plus
with the increase of mass in the control volume per unit time. From the
experiment carried on, we found that the mass continuity is evident. However
the amount of make-up water is not the same as those of gained. This may be
due to the level of humidity of the environment where the experiment was
carried out.
The amount of unaccounted mass is too little. The error that may have
occurred during this experiment can actually be explained via the uncertainty
of the measurements. For instance, the reading of the water level itself may
lead to parallax error whenever the experimenteers used the measuring
cylinder to add up water into the makeup tank. Other than that, whenever the
experimenteers is reading the indicator level of the pressure gauge of the
suction fan, parallax error could have also occurred.
Other possible reason of mass balance error is the environment where
the experiment was executed itself. For example, in the lab, the experiment
was carried out in an uncontrolled environment. The lab itself was air
conditioned but there were lots of open vents and door which makes the
temperature of the environment to varies. With the varied temperature, the
rate of evaporation and condensation and more importantly the absorption
and the release of heat from the water vapour is disrupted. Other than that,
with the open vents and doorways, an outside air current is present. With the
irregular movement of air in and out of the laboratory, it would disrupt the heat
movement of the system. With uncontrolled temperature and uncontrolled air
movement, the air humidity would be invariable. With the uncontrolled
variation of humidity, the amount of makeup water and those of gained ones
could be disrupted for measurements.

2. Is the energy conservation evident from your experimental result?

Is the load equal to the heater power?

How much energy is unaccounted for?
Discuss on the energy imbalance.
Yes. The energy conservation is present based on our results.
However the load is not equal to the heater power. The energy from the
calculation is 0.9 kW while the experimental data for the energy is from the
range of 1.0 kW to 1.5 kW. The energy that is unaccounted for is around 0.1
kW and 0.6 kW. This is due to the other variables such as water flow and air
flow where it affects the experiment. The load is varied with the air flow and
water flow.
Objective 2:
1. Describe the variations in load with air and water flow rates. Are they what you
expect?
When the load is increased from 1 kW to 1.5 kW with fixed air and water
flow meter, we can see that the temperature of T 1 to T6 increases respectively.
It shows that the heat is increases directly proportional to the heat load
provided to the system. Whenever the air flow meter was adjusted while at the
same time the load ad water flow meter was fixed, it shows that the
temperature of T1 to T6 decreases with a rather small change. As the air flow
meter of pressure changes from 13 then up to 15, the temperature of the
system are also going down. The pressure difference also changes when the
air flow meter was changed. For the water flow meter, we adjusted it from 30
to 40, and then to 48. From these variations, it shows that the temperature
also changes with it. As the water flow meter increases, the temperature
decreases. Therefore, increase in the water flow meter would make the
cooling tower to drop its temperature as the water flows into the system hence
the reducing the heat load. All of these three parameters are in one way or
another related to one another in controlling the heat movement in the cooling
tower. And finally, yes. With the outcome and observations we did on the
cooling tower, it is what we are expecting it to be.

2. What advantage does a cooling tower has over a heat exchanger that does
not mix the two fluids?

Among the advantages of a cooling tower is that it consumes less

power and requires less capital cost. Other than that, they can achieve water
temperature below the temperature of the air used to cool it and it can offer
smaller size and cheaper running cost but still can handle the same cooling
load as a heat exchanger.
3. What are the disadvantages of a cooling tower? Why most residential airconditioning system didnt use them?
Of all the advantages of cooling towers aforementioned, there are a
few of disadvantages or flaws that come with this systems design. One of
them is the use of water vapour and exuding them to the environment allows
access to microbial life to coexist within the humid environment. These
organisms to which some has some harmful potential to the human health
and causes discomfort for example the Legionnaires Disease to which the
bacteria involved can cause pneumonia to the people exposed to it. This
however can only occur whenever improper maintenance and service of the
machine is let happened.

CONCLUSIONS

From the experiment, what we obtained for the specific volume of dry air for
point A is 0.877 m3 kg-1. and for point B is 0.859 m3 kg-1.
The value of dry air mass flow rate at A is 0.0427 kg s -1 while the dry air mass flow
rate at E is 0.3 kg s-1.
The internal energy at E is 2495.73 kJ kg -1. The pump power is 0.9kW and the
mass balance of the system is 0.009821 kg s-1.
What we discovered from the experiment also is the cooling range of the
cooling tower which is about 0.7C.

ABSTRACT

What is seek and anticipated from this experiment is that we wanted to

determine the end state properties of air and water which refers to its level of
saturation after going through the cooling tower. The application of equations such
as the steady flow equation to selected systems to draw up energy and mass
balances lead us to the findings that the systems mass balance is.009821 kg s -1. We
also managed to figure out the relationship between the cooling load and cooling
range of a cooling tower. With the cooling towers cooling range, it should have the
capability to handle a specific amount of heat load given to it transiently.
What we studied is also the relationship of water and air in the cooling system
of the cooling tower. In the end, the amount of water entering the system and the
amount of air supplied to the system does help handling the cooling load that the
cooling tower needs to handle. And from our experiment, we managed to prove it.

REFERENCES

1. Internet
1.1. Cooling Tower Experiments, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

1.2.
1.3.
1.4.

(S. Lewis, S. Daniels & A. Newman;1996)

http://chem.engr.utc.edu/webres/435F/3T-CT/3T-CT.html
Water cooling tower, Sakshat Virtual Lab
http://iitg.vlab.co.in/?sub=58&brch=160&sim=763&cnt=1
Advantages and disadvantages: Cooling tower
http://www.fandrproducts.co.uk/adv.php
What is a cooling tower
http://spxcooling.com/coolingtowers

2. Books
2.1. Ryan K.J.; Ray C.G., Sherris Medical Microbiology (4th ed.). McGraw
Hill (2004)