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Thermal performance analysis of a closed wet cooling tower

Article in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part E Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering · August 2007
DOI: 10.1243/09544089JPME119

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 139

Thermal performance analysis

of a closed wet cooling tower
V D Papaefthimiou∗ , T C Zannis, and E D Rogdakis
Laboratory of Applied Thermodynamics, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece

The manuscript was received on 27 December 2006 and was accepted after revision for publication on 23 May 2007.
DOI: 10.1243/09544089JPME119

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 simu-
lations 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.

Keywords: closed wet cooling tower, serpentine water, sprayed water, thermal performance

1 INTRODUCTION same heat transfer increasing thus, the cost of the

installation.
In a closed wet cooling tower, heat is transferred from Theoretical modelling of closed wet cooling tower is
hot water or other fluid, circulating inside a serpentine complicated because cooling water, process fluid, and
to a water film, which is formed on the tube surface air stream, which are flowing in different directions,
and then, to a rising air stream. Indirect cooling tow- interact with each other through heat and mass trans-
ers can substitute cooling systems comprised of tube fer processes.Various attempts with different degree of
heat exchanger and cooling tower. This is one of the accuracy have been made since the late 1930s for mod-
reasons why evaporative coolers are used in industrial elling the combined heat and mass transfer phenom-
processes and in air-conditioning systems to reject ena taking place inside an evaporative cooler [1–3].
heat to the surrounding environment. Furthermore, A constant temperature approximation for injected
in closed cooling towers the water flowing into the cooling water was often assumed. However, Parker and
tube is protected from various contaminations lim- Treybal [4] discovered that this approximation lead
iting thus, the vulnerability of inner tube surface to to mathematical inconsistencies, which gave erro-
corrosion. However, a higher exchange area is needed neous results. In fact, Finlay and Grant [5] showed
compared to direct-contact wet cooling towers for the that constant temperature assumption may lead to
30 per cent error in large tube banks. Leidenfrost and
Korenic [6] developed a methodology similar to the
one of Parker and Treybal [4] with which they found
∗ Corresponding author: Laboratory of Applied Thermodynamics, that accurate prediction of performance characteris-
Thermal Engineering Section, School of Mechanical Engineer- tics of an evaporative cooler can be attained through
ing, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytech- iterative procedures. In addition, various researchers
niou Street 9, Zografou Campus, Athens 15780, Greece. email: suggested different methods for dimensioning evap-
[email protected] orative coolers [7, 8]. Finlay and Grant [9] suggested

JPME119 © IMechE 2007 Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering
140 V D Papaefthimiou, T C Zannis, and E D Rogdakis

a simplified model for describing the mass transfer seriously affected by the change of serpentine water
process inside an evaporative cooler, which was based inlet temperature.
on the expression of vapour pressure of saturated
moist air as linear function of temperature.
Dreyer [10] presented different mathematical mod- 2 MODEL DESCRIPTION
els for the thermal evaluation of evaporative cool-
ers and condensers [4, 7, 11–14]. Analytical models 2.1 General outline
[10–13, 15, 16] are based on the implementation of A comprehensive mathematical model based on the
energy and mass conservation laws making various conservation laws for energy and mass is used to
assumptions concerning the spayed water tempera- describe the coupled heat and mass transfer processes
ture distribution and the sprayed water loss due to taking place inside an indirect wet cooling tower. A rep-
evaporation. Aiming to a more realistic description resentative description of the closed wet cooling tower
of the transport phenomena taking place inside an considered in the present analysis is illustrated in
evaporative cooler, sophisticated mathematical mod- Fig. 1. The model was implemented for an indirect wet
els [17, 18] have been developed and CFD packages cooling tower having a bank of 16 × 31 plain tubes.
have been used [19–21], which provide predictions The length of tube bundle is 0.888 m. The tube length
of the temperature and flow field inside the cooling is 0.913 m and the outer and the inner tube diam-
tower. Though that these models are more detailed and eter are 0.0191 and 0.0150 m, respectively. The ratio
informative compared with analytical models, they of pitch to outside tube diameter is 1.5. The afore-
are time-consuming and thus, cannot provide perfor- mentioned geometrical specifications of the closed
mance predictions for large periods of time. However, wet cooling tower used herein were taken from ref-
such simulations are necessary when designing large erence [23]. Model development was based on the
power installations or cogeneration systems, since it following assumptions.
is of utmost importance to have a quick and reli-
able estimation of the annual amount of water lost 1. The heat and mass transfer processes occur under
due to evaporation in order to calculate the annual steady-state conditions, in a direction perpendicu-
operational cost of the installation. lar to the tower walls.
Recently, the present research group has developed 2. The specific heat capacity of sprayed water, ser-
a detailed thermodynamic model and used it to assess pentine water, and dry air are constant in the
the thermal performance of a wet cooling tower [22]. temperature range considered.
The success of this application has resulted in the uti- 3. The specific enthalpy of dry air, water, and serpen-
lization of the principles of thermodynamics for devel- tine water is equal to zero at 0 ◦ C.
oping a computational model. The newly-developed 4. Owing to the small temperature differences at
model is used to evaluate the thermal behaviour which the process occurs heat transferred by
of an indirect wet cooling tower. Energy and mass radiation is not taken into account.
conservation laws are employed in conjunction with
semiempirical correlations to describe the combined
heat and mass transfer phenomena taking place inside
the closed wet cooling tower. Specifically, the model
is used to examine the effect of air mass flowrate,
serpentine water mass flowrate, and inlet tempera-
ture on the variation of the thermodynamic state of
moist air inside the cooler and on its cooling capacity
and thermal efficiency. Comparison of the simulations
with experimental results obtained from the litera-
ture was made to secure the predictive ability of the
model. The analysis of the theoretical results revealed
that the increase of the air mass flowrate results in
increase of the cooling capacity and thermal efficiency
of the indirect wet cooling tower. However, in this
case the penalty in sprayed water loss due to evapo-
ration is increased. On the other hand, the increase
of serpentine water mass flowrate results in decrease
of its overall temperature reduction and decrease of
the thermal efficiency of the process. The thermal
performance of the closed wet cooling tower is not Fig. 1 Schematic view of the closed wet cooling tower

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering JPME119 © IMechE 2007
 Thermal performance analysis of a closed wet cooling tower 141

5. At the interfacial surface air reaches the tempera- The specific enthalpy of moist air is
ture of water and its humidity corresponds to the
state of equilibrium. ha = cpa Ta + W (cps
sat
Ta + hw ) (6)
6. The thermal resistance between the bulk and the
interface of falling water film is negligible. Differentiation of above relationship with respect to
7. Water and air are in counter-flow. air temperature Ta provides

dha = cpa dTa + dW (cps

sat
Ta + hw ) + Wcps
sat
dTa (7)
2.2 Mathematical treatment
The development of the analytical model is based on Hence, the rate of change of dry bulb air temperature
the implementation of energy balance for each one along wetted tube surface is
of the working fluids taking part in the process. The  
sat
implementation of the energy balance for the gaseous dTa aLA cps dW (Tw − Ta )
= + (8)
phase (refer to Fig. 2) implies that sensible and latent dA ṁa dA cpm
heat is exchanged between the falling water film and
the air stream resulting in the change of moist air where cpm is the specific heat capacity of moist air,
enthalpy as follows which is defined as

ṁa dha = dQ̇S + dQ̇L (1) cpm = cpa + Wcsat

ps (9)

Above relation can be rewritten in the following form The term (dW /dA) in equation (8) corresponds to the
evaporated water mass per unit heat exchange area
ṁa ha + dQ̇S + dQ̇L = (ha + dha )ṁa (2) at the water–vapour interface and it is given by the
following expression
The sensible load exchanged between moist air and
dW β
sprayed water film is = (W sat (Tw ) − Wa ) (10)
dA ṁa
dQ̇S = aLA (Tw − Ta )dA (3)
The saturation humidity ratio of air W sat is calcu-
lated using the following mathematical formula
The latent load carried to the air stream due to water
evaporation is sat
pws (Tw )
W sat (Tw ) = 0.622 (11)
pa − pws sat (T )
w
dQ̇L = dṁw his (4)
The definition of air humidity ratio is employed to
where his is the specific enthalpy of saturated moist derive the rate of change of evaporated sprayed water
air evaluated at air–water interface temperature mass per unit of heat exchange area as follows
defined as
ṁw dṁw d(ṁa W ) dṁw
W = =⇒ = =⇒
his = cps
sat
Tw + hw (5) ṁa dA dA dA
dW
= ṁa (12)
dA
The temperature difference between the recirculating
water and the sprayed water results in transfer of
sensible heat load to the falling film. Furthermore,
the sprayed water mass is progressively decreased
because of the evaporation process and the vaporized
mass fraction is transferred to the rising air stream.
Hence, the application of the energy balance between
serpentine water and falling water film provides

ṁw hw = (ṁw + dṁw )(hw + dhw ) + dQ̇S

+ dQ̇L − dQ̇f (13)
Fig. 2 Representative schematic description of the
energy contribution of sprayed water and air The second-order differential term dṁw dhw is
stream in a counter-flow closed wet cooling tower significantly lower compared with the other terms

JPME119 © IMechE 2007 Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering
142 V D Papaefthimiou, T C Zannis, and E D Rogdakis

and thus, it can be neglected from the previous 2.3 Heat and mass transfer coefficients
relationship. Hence, equation (13) can be written as
follows The heat transfer coefficient between falling water
film and air stream (Le = 1) is given by the following
ṁw dhw = −(dṁw hw + dQ̇S + dQ̇L − dQ̇f ) (14) relation [7, 11, 25, 26]

Above relation can be rewritten by taking into account αLA = βcpm (20)
equation (12)

dTw 1 dW where β is the mass transfer coefficient, which is
=− aLA (Tw − Ta ) + ṁa
dA ṁw c pw dA calculated as follows

× (cps
sat
Ta + cpw Tw + hw ) + U (Tw − Tf ) β = 6.0 × 10−8 (Rea )0.9 (Rew )0.15 (Do )−1.6 (21)
(15)
and Rea , Rew are the Reynolds numbers of the air and
The rejection of sensible heat from the circulating the sprayed water stream, respectively
water to the falling water film results in its temperature
fall as shown in the following relations Ga D o Gw Do
Rea = , Rew = ,
dQ̇f = ṁf cpf dTf and dQ̇f = U dA(Tf − Tw ) (16) μa μw
ṁw ṁa
Combining above relations the rate of change of Gw = , and Ga = (22)
Ac Ac
cooled water temperature along wetted tube area is
derived The minimum cross-sectional area for flow Ac in
dTf U (Tw − Tf ) equation (22) is calculated as follows
= (17)
dA ṁf cpf
L
Finally, a system of four ordinary differential equations Ac = − Do Ml (23)
M
is constituted
 
dTa aLA sat
cps dW (Tw − Ta ) where L is the length of tube bundle, M is the number
= + of row tubes, and l is the tube length.
dA ṁa dA cpm
 The overall heat transfer coefficient U between cir-
dTw 1 dW culating water, tube wall, and water film is calculated
=− aLA (Tw − Ta ) + ṁa
dA ṁw c pw dA by the following formula
  
× cps Ta + cpw Tw + hw + U (Tw − Tf )
sat
−1
Ro 1 Ro Ro 1
U= + ln + (24)
U (Tw − Tf ) Ri h f k Ri αTL
dTf dA =
ṁf cpf
dW β where the convection heat transfer coefficient of
= W sat (Tw ) − Wa circulating water hf is given by the Dittus–Boelter
dA ṁa
relation
dṁw dW
= ṁa  
dA dA 0.023 Re0.8 0.3
(18) f Prf λ
hf = (25)
Di
with the following boundary conditions

(Ta )Z =0 = Ta0 According to the literature [4, 11], the heat transfer
coefficient between the tube and the water film aTL is
(Tw )Z =L = Tw0 calculated by the following expression
(Tf )Z =L = Tf0
1/3
(W )Z =0 = W0 
αTL = 704(1.39 + 0.022Tw ) (26)
Do
(ṁw )Z =L = ṁw0
(19)
where  is a parameter defined as
A variable-step non-stiff method (Runge–Kutta 5(4))
was used to numerically solve the boundary-value ṁw
= (27)
problem [24]. 4Ml

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering JPME119 © IMechE 2007
 Thermal performance analysis of a closed wet cooling tower 143

3 OVERVIEW OF THE PARAMETRIC STUDY the objective here is to investigate thoroughly this
case by examining the changes in the thermal
An extensive theoretical investigation was conducted behaviour and process efficiency from the varia-
to examine the effect of various operating parameters tion of chilled water inlet temperature and then,
on the thermal performance of the evaporative cooling from the corresponding change of the circulating
tower. Hence, the following cases were considered. water mass flowrate. This will contribute on the
better understanding regarding suitability of such
1. Variable inlet air mass flowrate ṁa,i : The efficiency cooling devices in space air-conditioning systems.
of the evaporation process depends on the rela-
tive velocity of the water/air stream. Specifically,
the residence time of the falling water film on the 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
tubes is insufficient for high air velocities and as
a result the evaporation process is uncompleted.
4.1 Experimental validation
Furthermore, it has been implied that for velocities
higher than a critical value, the water droplets are Before proceeding to the examination of the effect of
entrained by the air stream with detrimental effects various operating parameters on the thermal perfor-
on the operation of the cooling device. Hence, mance of the closed wet cooling tower, it is of utmost
two different air mass flowrates were considered importance to validate the predictive ability of the pro-
namely 1.0 and 4.0 kg/s beyond the ‘reference case’ posed model. For this reason, in Fig. 3 a comparison
(2.0 kg/s). The following inlet conditions constitute is made between predicted and experimental results
the ‘reference case’ of the closed wet cooling tower obtained from reference [23] for dry bulb air tem-
operation: perature, falling water film temperature and cooled
(a) sprayed water temperature: Tw,i = 20 ◦ C; water temperature for two different ‘temperature
(b) sprayed water mass flowrate: ṁw,i = 1.85 kg/s; approaches’. The ‘temperature approach’ is defined as
(c) air massflow rate: ṁa,i = 2.0 kg/s; the difference between the outlet wet bulb air tem-
(d) serpentine water temperature: Tf ,i = 35 ◦ C; perature Twb,o and the inlet dry bulb temperature Ta,i
(e) serpentine water mass flowrate: ṁf ,i = 2.67 kg/s. and thus, simulations were conducted in order the
The purpose is to scrutinize the effect on the varia- ‘temperature approach’ to be constant at two differ-
tion of the thermodynamic parameters of the moist ent cases. The inlet conditions considered to make
air inside the evaporative cooler, on the thermal these simulations are given in Table 1. In the case of
performance and the effectiveness of the process. dry bulb temperature, measured data for the variation
2. Variable inlet temperature Tf ,i of circulating water of this value inside the cooling tower were unavail-
and its water mass flowrate ṁf ,i : water evaporation able and for this reason, the comparison is limited
may be an efficient way to cool warm water com- to the inlet and outlet conditions. A very good coin-
ing from the heat exchangers of an air-conditioning cidence between calculated and measured results at
system after exchanging heat with hot air. Hence, the entrance and the exit of the cooler is evidenced

Fig. 3 Effect of ‘temperature approach’ (Twb,o − Tdb,i ) on the variation of dry bulb air temperature,
sprayed water and cooled water inside the closed wet cooling tower. Theoretical results
are given as function of the wetted tube surface and are contrasted with corresponding
experimental data obtained from reference [23]

JPME119 © IMechE 2007 Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering
144 V D Papaefthimiou, T C Zannis, and E D Rogdakis

Table 1 Inlet conditions considered for conducting the (4 kg/s). The air humidity ratio increases with increas-
experimental validation ing wetted tube surface at all cases of air mass flowrate.
The increase of air mass flowrate results in decrease
Parameter (◦ C) Twb,o − Tdb,i = 5.1 ◦ C Twb,o − Tdb,i = 8.3 ◦ C
of the values of humidity ratio inside the cooling
Tdb,i 10 8.5 tower. Lower outlet values of dry bulb temperature and
Twb,i 8.45 7.0 humidity ratio are observed with increasing air mass
Tw,i 12.8 13.6 flowrate.
Tf ,i 15.6 18
Examination of the effect of air mass flowrate on the
evolution of serpentine water temperature, sprayed
water temperature and relative change of sprayed
water mass is facilitated through Figs 4(c) to (e). The
for all the parameters shown in Fig. 3 in both cases of increase of the air inlet mass intensifies the reduction
‘temperature approach’. Furthermore, a close exami- rate of serpentine water temperature. Hence, the low-
nation of the corresponding curves for sprayed water est outlet serpentine water temperature is witnessed
and cooled water temperature reveals that the model in the case of high air stream flowrate (ṁa,i = 4 kg/s).
predicts successfully not only the boundary values for An abrupt increase of sprayed water temperature is
these two parameters but also their variation during observed for tube surface up to 7.5 m2 while for higher
the process. The overall relative error between calcu- values of tube surface, the falling water tempera-
lated and experimental results was less than 5 per cent ture is curtailed. This limits the overall temperature
for all cases considered. This enhances our confidence increase of sprayed water. The highest overall increase
on the reliability of the simulations, which will be of sprayed water temperature is observed in the case
presented herein. of low air inlet mass (1 kg/s). It must be noted that the
As observed, the temperature of the serpentine difference of the sprayed water temperature between
water is decreased and the rate of decrease is more the entrance and the exit of the cooling tower depends
intense during the initial stages of the evaporation pro- on the amount of the sprayed water lost because of
cess (up to 7.5 m2 ) whereas, for higher values of wetted evaporation. The last depends strongly on the rela-
tube surface the slope of reduction is constant. In addi- tive velocity of falling water film with respect to the air
tion, a slight increase of sprayed water temperature is stream. Hence, there is an ‘optimum’ ratio of sprayed
evidenced for values of heat exchange area up to 7.5 m2 water to air mass flowrate, which provides a certain
being in accordance with the corresponding decrease degree of falling water evaporation and compels water
of serpentine water temperature in the same surface to enter and leave cooling tower with almost the same
range. For values of tube surface higher than 7.5 m2 the temperature. Deviations in air or water mass flowrate
temperature of the sprayed water is decreased because from the optimum values results in differences of
of the evaporation of a fraction of the falling water water temperature between the entrance and the exit
film mass, which is transferred as latent load to the of the cooling tower.
surrounding air. As a consequence the temperature of The variation of the percentage loss of sprayed water
sprayed water at the tower exit is almost the same with mass inside the closed wet cooling tower with air
the one at the entrance. Finally, an increase of dry bulb mass flowrate is shown in Fig. 4(e). As evidenced, the
air temperature is observed because of the absorption increase of air mass flowrate intensifies the reduction
of sensible and latent heat loads from the falling water of sprayed water mass because of evaporation. Hence,
film during the evaporation process. the highest overall percentage loss of sprayed water is
observed in the case of high air mass flowrate (4 kg/s).
The curtailment of dry bulb temperature and
humidity ratio, which is evidenced close to the exit
4.2 Effect of air mass flowrate
of the tower, can be explained as follows: The air
The sensitivity of the variation of air temperature temperature becomes higher than the falling water
and humidity ratio to the change of air stream mass film temperature and the air humidity ratio higher
flowrate is displayed in Figs 4(a) and (b), respectively. than the saturation humidity ratio at the sprayed water
An increase of dry bulb air temperature with increas- temperature. Hence, heat is rejected from the air to
ing wetted tube surface is observed for low (1 kg/s) and the falling water stream both as sensible and latent
moderate (2 kg/s) values of air mass flowrate. In the load.
case of ṁa,i = 4 kg/s, the dry bulb temperature is ini- The high gradients of sprayed water temperature
tially curtailed for values of tube surface up to 7.5 m2 increase and serpentine water temperature reduction,
and then, increases progressively. The increase at all which are observed up to 7.5 m2 of wetted tube
cases is curtailed near the air outlet from the cooling surface, are attributed to the amplification of the
tower. The highest overall increase of dry bulb tem- evaporation process because of the high temper-
perature is observed for the higher air mass flowrate ature difference between air and sprayed water

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering JPME119 © IMechE 2007
 Thermal performance analysis of a closed wet cooling tower 145

Fig. 4 Effect of air mass flowrate on the variation of (a) dry bulb temperature, (b) humidity ratio,
(c) sprayed water temperature, (d) serpentine water temperature, and (e) relative change of
sprayed water mass inside the indirect wet cooling tower

stream and the high affinity of air for water vapour water and subsequently, to the cooling capacity of
absorption. the closed wet cooling tower. Increase of the thermal
The increase of air mass results in the increase efficiency is observed also with increasing air mass
of the overall temperature reduction of serpentine flowrate.

JPME119 © IMechE 2007 Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering
146 V D Papaefthimiou, T C Zannis, and E D Rogdakis

Fig. 5 Effect of serpentine water inlet temperature on the variation of (a) dry bulb temperature,
(b) humidity ratio, (c) sprayed water temperature, (d) serpentine water temperature, and (e)
relative change of sprayed water mass inside the closed wet cooling tower

4.3 Effect of inlet temperature of serpentine water ratio is shown in Figs 5(a) and (b). The increase of
serpentine water inlet temperature results in increase
The influence of cooled water inlet temperature on the of in-tower and outlet values dry bulb temperature and
variation of dry bulb air temperature and humidity humidity ratio. For moderate values of chilled water

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering JPME119 © IMechE 2007
 Thermal performance analysis of a closed wet cooling tower 147

Fig. 6 Effect of serpentine water mass flowrate on the variation of (a) dry bulb temperature, (b)
humidity ratio, (c) sprayed water temperature, (d) serpentine water temperature, and (e)
relative change of sprayed water mass inside the closed wet cooling tower

inlet temperature (30 ◦ C), the overall change of dry of decrease of cooled water temperature is amplified
bulb temperature is almost insignificant whereas for with increasing inlet temperature. However, the higher
pertinent low values (25 ◦ C), the air stream is cooled up outlet temperatures of chilled water are witnessed in
to almost 10 per cent. As observed in Fig. 5(c), the rate the case of high inlet temperature (35 ◦ C).

JPME119 © IMechE 2007 Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering
148 V D Papaefthimiou, T C Zannis, and E D Rogdakis

According to Fig. 5(d), the rate of increase of sprayed resulting thus, to an overall cooling of the air stream.
water temperature is enhanced with increasing cir- According to Figs 6(c) and (d), the increase of circu-
culating water inlet temperature for values of wetted lating water mass results in higher sprayed water and
surface up to 7.5 m2 whereas for higher tube surfaces, cooled water temperatures either inside the tower or
the sprayed water temperature is curtailed at all cases at its exit. As shown in Fig. 6(e), the highest overall per-
of cooled water inlet temperature. Hence, the highest centage reduction of sprayed water mass is observed
peak and outlet temperature of falling water stream for the highest value of processed water mass flowrate.
is observed for highest inlet temperature of circulat- In addition, decrease of the total temperature reduc-
ing water (35 ◦ C). In the latter case, the highest overall tion of cooled water temperature and the thermal
increase of falling water film is evidenced. efficiency of the evaporative cooling tower is observed
As observed from Fig. 5(e), the rate of change of with increasing chilled water mass flowrate.
sprayed water mass flowrate is similar for the three
cooled water inlet temperatures for values of wetted
tube surface up to 12.5 m2 . However, for higher val-
ues of tube surface the reduction rate of sprayed water
5 CONCLUSIONS
mass is amplified with increasing cooled water tem-
perature. Thus, the highest overall percentage loss of
A detailed model was developed and used to simulate
sprayed water mass is observed for the highest inlet
the processes taking place inside a closed wet cooling
temperature of circulating water.
tower and mainly, to investigate the effect of vari-
The variations of sprayed water temperature, circu-
ous operating parameters on its thermal behaviour.
lating water temperature and percentage reduction
The reliability of model predictions was tested against
of falling water mass, which were observed in the
experimental results obtained from the literature and
case of Tf ,i = 25 ◦ C, may provide an explanation to
the suggested model was found capable of predicting
the aforementioned cooling of the air stream. Specif-
the thermal performance of a closed wet cooling tower
ically, the phenomenon of ‘evaporative cooling’ can
with sufficient accuracy. This facilitated the exami-
be attributed to the relatively low temperature differ-
nation of the effect of air mass flowrate, serpentine
ence between air stream and circulating water at the
water temperature, and mass flowrate on the evolu-
beginning of the process. In this case, a considerable
tion of the thermodynamic characteristics of the air
limitation of the sensible heat load, which is partially
stream, sprayed water, and serpentine water as well as
transferred from the serpentine water to the sprayed
on the overall performance and efficiency characteris-
water and then, to the air stream, is conducted. When
tics of the closed wet cooling tower. The evaluation of
the inlet temperature of circulating water is high
the theoretical results resulted in the derivation of the
(35 ◦ C), the sensible fraction of heat load carried to the
following conclusions.
air stream overwhelms its heat rejection, which is nec-
essary for the evaporation of cooling water. However,
in the specific case, the sensible portion is negligible 1. The increase of air mass flowrate results in:
and thus, the air stream is cooled and humidified (a) reduction of dry bulb temperature and
because of the water–vapour absorption. humidity ratio;
Furthermore, the increase of cooled water inlet tem- (b) decrease of the overall temperature fall of
perature results in the slight increase of cooled water sprayed water;
temperature fall. Overall, the variation of thermal effi- (c) increase of percentage losses of sprayed water
ciency and cooling capacity with increasing circulating mass because of evaporation;
water inlet temperature is inconsiderable. (d) increase of the overall temperature reduction of
serpentine water (cooling capacity).
2. The increase of inlet temperature of serpentine
water results in:
4.4 Effect of serpentine water mass flowrate
(a) increase of dry bulb temperature and humidity
The influence of variable recirculating water mass on ratio;
the variation of dry bulb air temperature and humidity (b) increase of overall sprayed water temperature;
ratio is presented in Figs 6(a) and (b). As observed, the (c) increase of the total amount of vaporized
increase of chilled water mass results in the increase sprayed water mass;
of dry bulb temperatures and humidity ratio inside (d) small increase of the cooling capacity of indi-
the closed wet cooling tower and at the tower out- rect wet cooling tower.
let. The dry bulb temperature and humidity ratio are 3. The increase of serpentine water mass flowrate
curtailed close to exit of the cooler. For low values of results in:
chilled water mass (1.34 kg/s), the dry bulb tempera- (a) increase of dry bulb temperature and humidity
ture is initially curtailed and then, increases slightly ratio;

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering JPME119 © IMechE 2007
 Thermal performance analysis of a closed wet cooling tower 149

(b) increase of the overall sprayed water tempera- 13 Erens, J. and Dreyer, A. A. An improved procedure
ture and percentage losses because of evapora- for calculating the performance of evaporative closed
tion; circuit coolers. The 25th National Heat Transfer Confer-
(c) decrease of the overall temperature reduction ence, Houston, AIChE Symposium Series, 1988, vol. 84,
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of serpentine water.
14 Poppe, M. and Rögener, H. Evaporative cooling systems.
In general, the highest temperature fall of serpen- VDI –Warmeatlas, 1984, section Mh.
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645–658.
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16 Qureshi, B. A. and Zubair, S. M. A comprehensive
temperature fall of serpentine water. However, this
design and rating study of evaporative coolers and con-
cannot be done without exacerbating the penalty in densers. Part II: sensitivity analysis. Int. J. Refrig., 2006,
sprayed water losses. Promising results concerning 29, 659–668.
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of the process fluid is close to the inlet temperature of rative fluid coolers. J. Chem. Eng. Process., 1997, 36,
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19 Gan, G., Riffat, S. B., Shao, L., and Doherty, P. Application
of CFD to closed-wet cooling towers. Appl. Therm. Eng.,
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National Engineering Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgow, 24 Hairer, E., Nørsett, S. P., and Wanner, G. Solving ordi-
1974. nary differential equation I: nonstiff problems. In Springer
6 Leidenfrost, W. and Korenic, B. Evaporative cooling and series in computational mathematics, 2nd edition, 1993,
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9 Finlay, C. I. and Grant, W. D. Air coolers, cooling tow-
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pp. 165–328. APPENDIX
10 Dreyer, A. A. Analysis of evaporative cooler and condenser.
MSc Thesis, University of Stellenbosch, Republic of South Notation
Africa, 1988.
aLA water to air heat transfer coefficient
11 Webb, R. L. and Villacres, A. Algorithms for perfor-
(W/m2 /◦ C)
mance simulation of cooling towers, evaporative con-
densers and fluid coolers. ASHRAE Trans., 1984, 90(2B), aTL tube to water film heat transfer coef-
416–458. ficient (W/m2 /◦ C)
12 Webb, R. L. A unified theoretical treatment for thermal A wetted tube surface (m2 )
analysis of cooling towers, evaporative condensers and Ac minimum cross-sectional area for
fluid coolers. ASHRAE Trans., 1984, 90(2B), 398–415. flow on the air side (m2 )

JPME119 © IMechE 2007 Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering
150 V D Papaefthimiou, T C Zannis, and E D Rogdakis

cpa specific heat at constant pressure of Tw sprayed water temperature (◦ C)

dry air (J/kg/K) U overall heat transfer coefficient of
cpm specific heat of moist air (J/kg/K) falling water film (W/m2 /◦ C)
sat
cps specific heat of saturated steam W air humidity ratio (kg/kgda )
(J/kg/K) W sat saturation humidity ratio of moist air
cpw specific heat of water (J/kg/K) (kgw /kg da )
cpf specific heat of process fluid (J/kg/K) Z tower height (m)
D tube diameter (m)
β mass transfer coefficient (kg/m2 /s)
G air mass velocity (m/s)
 parameter defined as ṁw /4Ml
ha specific enthalpy of moist air (J/kg)
(kg/m/s)
hf convection heat transfer coefficient of
hw latent heat of vaporization for water
process fluid (W/m2 /◦ C)
(J kg−1 )
his specific enthalpy of saturated moist
λ thermal conductivity of water
air evaluated at air–water interface
(W/m/◦ C)
temperature (J/kg)
μ dynamic viscosity (kg/m/s)
hw specific enthalpy of water (J/kg)
k tube thermal conductivity (W/m/◦ C)
l tube length (m) Subscripts
L length of tube bundle (m) a air
Le Lewis number c coolant
ṁa air mass flowrate (kg/s) db dry bulb
ṁf process fluid mass flowrate (kg/s) f process fluid
ṁw sprayed water mass flowrate (kg/s) i inner
M number of tubes in a row is steam at the interface
n thermal efficiency L latent
pa moist air pressure (Pa) LA liquid to air
sat
pws saturation pressure of moist air (Pa) m air–steam (mixture)
Pr Prandtl number o outer
Q̇f process fluid heat flowrate (W) s steam
Q̇L latent heat flowrate (W) sat saturated
Q̇S sensible heat flowrate (W) S sensible
R tube radius (m) TL tube to liquid
Re Reynolds number w water
RH relative humidity ws water–vapour
Ta air temperature (◦ C) wb wet bulb
Tf process fluid temperature (◦ C) w, s saturated steam

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part E: J. Process Mechanical Engineering JPME119 © IMechE 2007

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