THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THERMAL PERFORMANCE WITHIN A COUNTERFLOW WET COOLING TOWER

Abstract

This study is interested on experimental and theoretical of heat and mass transfer phenomena in a counter-flow wet cooling tower. A simplified thermal model has been used to simulate the thermal behavior and the performance of the tower. The calculation of the heat and mass transfer parameters to determine the characteristics of the good operation of the tower. Eight experimental manipulations were conducted to study the influence of various parameters (such as: thermal cooling load, the flow of water and air) on the thermal performance of the tower. The results obtained show that the increase in cooling load contributes to a considerable reduction in the effectiveness of the tower, as well as the increase in the water flow is used to decrease the performance of the tower, while the increase in airflow is used to improve considerably the different parameters of performance. It can be seen that the results obtained by simulation coincide quite well with the experimental results. The minor discrepancies between the present simulation and experimental measurements can be attributed to the measurements uncertainties and simulation accuracy.

Keywords

• Cooling tower
• Experiments
• Heat transfer
• Mass transfer
• Modeling