Thermal performance analysis of a closed wet cooling tower

Abstract

A detailed model was developed and employed to examine the thermal performance of a closed wet cooling tower. The model is capable of predicting the variation of air thermodynamic properties, sprayed and serpentine water temperature as well as heat transfer rates exchanged between air and falling water stream inside the indirect wet cooling tower. The reliability of simulations was tested against experimental data obtained from the literature. A parametric study was conducted to evaluate the thermal behaviour of the indirect cooling tower under various air mass flowrates, serpentine water mass flowrates and inlet temperatures. The results of the theoretical investigation revealed an increase in cooling capacity and percentage loss of sprayed water due to evaporation, with increasing air mass flowrate. On the other hand, the increase of serpentine water mass flowrate resulted in slight increase in the overall temperature reduction of serpentine water. The effect of variable serpentine water inlet temperature on thermal performance of the indirect wet cooling tower was insignificant compared to other cases.