Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693

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Energy and Buildings

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Articial neural network analysis of the performance characteristics of a

reversibly used cooling tower under cross ow conditions for heat pump heating
system in winter
Jiasheng Wu, Guoqiang Zhang , Quan Zhang, Jin Zhou, Yu Wang
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study deals with predicting the performance characteristics of a reversibly used cooling tower (RUCT)
Received 22 October 2010 under cross ow conditions for heat pump heating system in winter using articial neural network (ANN)
Received in revised form 25 January 2011 technique. For this aim, extensive eld experimental work has been carried out in order to gather enough
Accepted 14 March 2011
data for training and prediction. After back-propagation (BP) training combined with principal compo-
nent analysis, the three-layer ANN model with a tangent sigmoid transfer function at hidden layer with
Keywords:
11 neurons and a linear transfer function at output layer was obtained. The predictions agreed well with
Reversibly used cooling tower
the experimental values with a satisfactory correlation coefcient in the range of 0.92490.9988, the
Heating
Articial neural network
absolute fraction of variance in the range of 0.87530.9976, and the mean relative error in the range of
Back-propagation algorithm 0.00080.54%, moreover, the root mean square error values for the ANN training and predictions were
very low relative to the range of the experiments. The results reveal that ANN model can be used effec-
tively for predicting the performance characteristics of RUCT under cross ow conditions, then providing
the theoretical basis on the research of heat and mass transfer inside RUCT, which is important for design
and running control of the RUCT system.
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The function of a wet cooling tower is to cool water by bring-
ing it into direct contact with air. This cooling is accomplished by
a combination of sensible heat transfer and evaporation of a small
proportion of water [1]. It is widely used to dissipate excess heat
to the environment from water-cooled refrigeration and air con-
ditioning system. However, in sub-tropical regions during colder
seasons, a mechanical draft cooling tower may be also reversibly
used, as part of a heat pump system for service hot-water heating,
to extract free heat from ambient air in colder seasons [2].
Until recently, a number of new desuperheater heat recov-
ery systems that include a reversibly used water cooling tower
(RUWCT) have been installed in subtropical regions in China. Com-
pared with other traditional HVAC heating systems, the advantage
of a water chiller complete with a desuperheater and a RUWCT for
service hot water generation is self evident [2]. In these regions
the outdoor temperature is comparatively high all the year around,
therefore, the desuperheater heat recovery systems that include a
RUWCT can satisfy the heating requirement for these regions quite
well. Earlier work has been conducted on the conventional desu-
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 731 88825398; fax: +86 731 88821005.
E-mail address: gqzhang@188.com (G. Zhang).
perheater heat recovery system that include a RUWCT for cooling
and heating, which has shown that it has a shortcoming that pre-
vents its application in other regions in China with relative cold
climates [3,4]. The reason is that this kind of HVAC system cannot
work safely because of the risk of water freezing in cooling tower
and performance deterioration of the water chiller caused by the
relative low ambient temperature. To extend its application for the
region with relative colder climate than subtropical regions, a new
type of air conditioning system, named as reversibly used cooling
tower heating system using heat pump (RUCTHPS), which using
aqueous solution as circulation medium, instead of water, between
the reversibly used cooling tower (RUCT) and heat pump was pro-
posed in this paper. The heat and mass transfer characteristics of
a standard water cooling tower have been well understood and
documented when it is normally used to dissipate heat to the atmo-
sphere. However, when is used as a RUCT as part of a heat pump
system for service hot-water heating in winter to extract heat from
the ambient air operational characteristics by using aqueous solu-
tion as circulation medium are expected to be signicantly different
from that of a standard water cooling tower, and should be inves-
tigated. From the present research status, very few researchers
studied the cross ow mechanical ventilation inuence on heat
and mass transfer characteristic of RUCT. In fact, many parame-
ters affect heat and mass transfer characteristic of RUCT. Whats
more, the inuence is non-linear, and these parameters are inter-

0378-7788/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.03.008
1686 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693

Nomenclature

BP back-propagation
r correlation coefcient
R2 absolute fraction of variance
MRE mean relative error (%)
RMSE root mean square error
a actual output
p predicted output
m mass ow rate of aqueous solution (kg/s)
Q heat absorption capacity (kW)
E expected value
G mass ow rate of air (kg/s)
T temperature ( C)
Cp specic heat capacity (kJ/kg K)
N the number of points in the data set
cov covariance
Fig. 1. Schematic description of the test system.
Greek symbols
a mean value of a set
p mean value of p set ANN technology and experimental test. The ANN approach has been
humidity ratio applied to the experimental data to show its capability in the rep-
 heating coefcient of efciency resentation of the performance of the RUCT. Then a methodology
 ratio of latent heat transfer to total heat transfer based on the cross-validation procedure to estimate the expected
 ratio of sensible heat transfer to total heat transfer error of the ANN approach constructed from undersized data when
 ration of sensible heat transfer to latent heat transfer the performance of the RUCT under different conditions has been
developed. It is also required to conrm the validity of the method
Subscripts applied to the available experimental measurements. This would
a air facilitate work of design engineers and researchers in the eld.
s aqueous solution
in inlet
2. Description of the experimental setup and testing
out outlet
procedure
bb brine-bulb
db dry-bulb
2.1. Description of the experimental setup
wb wet-bulb
v water vapor
Extensive eld experimental work on the heat and mass trans-
w water
fer characteristics of a cross ow RUCT has been carried out in an
ofce building, which is located in Changsha, Hunan province, a hot
summer and cold winter region in China, where the RUCTHPS was
actional and intercoupling. So it is more difcult to study the cross installed. A heat pump of 125 kW total heating capacity, which was
ow mechanical ventilation inuence on heat and mass transfer special designed, supplied heat to the ofce building. The tested
characteristic of RUCT by using the classical mathematical model- RUCT was an induced draft cross ow type with the cross sectional
ing. However, the articial neural networks have the characteristic area of 9.9 m2 , lled with 144 pieces of packing with each surface
which can catch preferably nonlinear rule. ANN modeling of energy area of 6 m2 . The diagrammatic sketch of the experiment system
systems has been recently studied by numerous investigators, as is shown in Fig. 1. The heating system comprises one refrigerat-
reviewed by Gao et al. [5] applied articial neural networks to ing uid loop and two liquid loops. The refrigerating uid loop is
predict the thermal performance of a cooling tower under cross- the monochlorodiuoromethane (R22). The two liquid loops are
wind conditions. Hosoz et al. [6] revealed that cooling towers could the aqueous solution and hot water loop. Calcium chloride (CaCl2 )
alternatively be modeled using ANN within a high degree of accu- aqueous solution was selected as the secondary refrigerant due to
racy, which required only a limited number of tests instead of its stability, high performance, and relative lower freezing point, so
an exhaustive experimental study or dealing with a complicated that the heat pump allows to extract heat from the air when the air
mathematical model. Qi et al. [7] combined the ANN method with temperature drops to zero centigrade.
the conventional method and present the model of shower cooling Ambient air is brought into the RUCT and directly contacts the
tower with accuracy and adaptively and presented the ANN tech- aqueous solution in a cross ow fashion by the fan, which is then
nique could determine the performance of shower cooling towers sensibly cooled by aqueous solution inside the RUCT. The open heat
under various operating conditions. Although there are three major exchanger is chosen instead of an electric heater or a boiler heating
differences in the heat and mass transfer processes taking place system to maintain the temperature of the aqueous solution and
in a standard water cooling tower and a RUWCT, namely, water- to provide low temperature heat resource for heat pump which
side heat transfer resistance, reduced latent heat exchange and provides hot water needed for the entire air conditioning system.
increased chilled water ow [8]. So the thermal performance pre- The cold CaCl2 aqueous solution, coming from the evaporator of
diction of RUCT under cross ow conditions is done by adopting the heat pump, is sprayed on the top of padding inside the RUCT in
ANN technology in this paper. order to expose a very large portion of its surface to the ambient
The main purpose of this study is to analyze and predict the per- air. After CaCl2 aqueous solution absorbs heat from the ambient air,
formance of the RUCT under cross ow conditions as part of a heat hence increasing its temperature, collected at the basin of the RUCT
pump system for service hot-water heating in winter by means of and then pumped back into the evaporator of the heat pump, which
 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693
cooled by R22, completing its circuit as show in Fig. 1. Another heat
exchanger named condenser in heat pump exchanges heat between
R22 and water. The water entering the condenser is heated at the
same time, which can satisfy the heating requirement for the entire
air conditioning system.
The electrically operated valve at the aqueous solution outlet
pipe of the RUCT was used to automatically control the ow rate
and the mass concentration of aqueous solution circulated through
the RUCT by the liquid storage tank, which was used as the strong
and weak aqueous solution storage tanks.
2.2. Performance characteristics of the RUCT
In the present study, three parameters are used in investigating
the performance characteristics of the RUCT, namely heat absorp-
tion capacity, heating coefcient of efciency, and ratio of sensible
heat transfer to the latent heat transfer.
In RUCT analyses, using the Merkel approach, the heat transfer
rate
Q = ms Cps (Ts,out Ts,in ) (1)
where the effect of the change in aqueous solution mass ow rate
is not considered in the energy balance. If it is assumed that the air
is supersaturated inside the RUCT then the mass ow rate of the
condensate water, mv may be determined by using the equation
mv = G(a,in a,out ) (2)
where a,in and a,out represent the specic humidity of air at the
entry and the exit of the RUCT.
However, another equation for the heat absorption capacity,
according to the Merkel approach, in which the water gain, due
to condensation, is considered in the energy equation
Q = ms Cps (Ts,out Ts,in ) + mv Cpw Ts,out (3)
where Cps and Cpw represent the specic heat capacity of CaCl2
aqueous solution and water.
A RUCT is mainly designed to heat circulating aqueous solution
from a process. As such, the aqueous solution side effectiveness
of the RUCT may be dened by analogy to the effectiveness of a
classical heat exchanger, and is determined as the ratio of actual to
maximum aqueous solution temperature drop [9]. Consequently,
it can be expressed as
Ts,out Ts,in
= (4)
Ts,out Tbb
where Ts,out , Ts,in are the inlet, outlet aqueous solution tem-
peratures, and Tb,b is dened as the thermodynamic brine-bulb
temperature [10].
At the air inlet of the RUCT, the incoming moist air meets chilled
calcium chloride water from evaporator. Depending on the dew
point temperature of the entering moist air, it may experience two
different processes in the RUCT [1117]. By denition,  is the ratio
of latent heat transfer to the total heat transfer,  is the ratio of
sensible heat transfer to the total heat transfer, and  is the ration
of sensible heat transfer to the latent heat transfer, which all vary
with different RUCT congurations and operating conditions of the
RUCTHPS. However, for a specic RUCTHPS under a specic oper-
ating condition, the reliable ,  and  variation range can be used
to simplify the analysis of the RUCT. Consequently, ,  and  can
be expressed as
mv Cpw Ts,out
= (5)
Q
mv Cpw Ts,out
 =1 (6)
Q the accuracy of the neural models, the correlation coefcient, root
1687
Q
= 1 (7)
mv Cpw Ts,out
2.3. Testing procedure
A set of instruments were installed to measure parameters
required to evaluate the operating and performance characteristics
of the RUCT. In the test, the main thermal parameters were mon-
itored, including outlet air velocity, inlet and outlet temperature
of CaCl2 aqueous solution and water, wet and dry-bulb tempera-
ture of inlet and outlet air, CaCl2 aqueous solution and water ow
rate, inlet and outlet air pressure, density of CaCl2 aqueous solu-
tion, power of compressor, pump and fan. Fig. 1 shows the locations
of various measuring instruments and meters, and Table 1 shows
detailed information about the measuring instruments. In addition,
in order to evaluate the concentration of the CaCl2 aqueous solu-
tion, the density and the corresponding temperature were used
to calculate its concentration according to the method described
by Conde [18]. During the whole experimental process, relevant
parameters were recorded only if the uctuation of every parame-
ter was within 1% and the operating mode was stable after 1 h, and
the ultimate parameters were the average statistics for the whole
10 min period.
3. Modeling using an ANN
3.1. Description of the ANN model
The advantage of ANN from other methods is its accomplish-
ment in modeling the complex problems having many variables
easily [19,20]. The performance of an ANN is affected by the char-
acteristic of the network, such as the number of hidden layer. But
there is not a denite method to choose the optimal number of hid-
den layer until now. The ANN model which has one hidden layer can
meet with simulative requirements [21]. So a three-layer BP net-
work was used in this paper, which has an advantage in processing
complicated, non-linear and uncertain objects. As shown in Fig. 2,
the activation function is chosen as the tangent sigmoid function
in the hidden layer and the linear transfer function in the output
layer. The input layer has ve nodes, including inlet air dry-bulb
temperature, inlet air wet-bulb temperature, inlet CaCl2 aqueous
solution temperature, CaCl2 aqueous solution mass ow rate and
air mass ow rate. And the output layer has nine nodes, including
heat absorption capacity, heating coefcient of efciency, ratio of
sensible heat transfer to the latent heat transfer, outlet air dry-bulb
temperature, outlet air wet-bulb temperature, outlet CaCl2 aque-
ous solution temperature, ratio of sensible heat transfer to the total
heat transfer, ratio of latent heat transfer to the total heat transfer
and humidity ratio of moist air difference between inlet and outlet.
The data gathered from experiments was divided into input matrix
[p] and target matrix [t].
In order to develop the neural network presented, there are
811 inputoutput pairs, there into, 761 pairs were employed for
training set, and the remaining 50 pairs were regarded as the test-
ing the network. All the training and testing data were normalized
between 0 and 1 in order to improve the predicted agreement. The
normalization and anti-normalization functions of training data
are premnmx and postmnmx function, respectively, and the nor-
malization and anti-normalization functions of testing data are
tramnmx and postmnmx function.
3.2. Performance analysis for ANN
The performance of the ANN based prediction is evaluated by a
regression analysis between the network outputs. In order to assess
1688 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693

Table 1
Monitored parameters and measuring apparatus.

Items Measuring apparatus Instrument type Accuracy Measuring target

Temperature Platinum resistance thermometer PT1000 0.2 C Inlet and outlet water temperature
Inlet and outlet CaCl2 aqueous solution temperature
Wet and dry bulb temperature of inlet and outlet air
Flow rate Flowmeter LWGYC 2.5% Water ow rate
CaCl2 aqueous solution ow rate
Air velocity Hot-wire anemometer T4352 2.5% Outlet air velocity
Pressure Barometric pressure M170127 0.5% FS Atmospheric pressure
Hot-wire manometer KYB14 0.25% Inlet and outlet air pressure
Density Density specic gravity meter DA-130N 0.001 g/cm3 CaCl2 aqueous solution
Voltage Voltage acquisition unit 0.5% Compressor, pump, fan
Power Power acquisition unit D26-W 1.0% Compressor, pump, fan
Data Data acquisition unit POL635 Sampling interval Test system

mean square error, mean relative error and absolute fraction of explained by the experimental values, and the r value between the
variance are acted as the characteristic parameters to assess the experimental values and predicted outputs is dened by [6,22]
agreement of training and prediction. Correlation coefcient (r) is
cov(a, p)
a measure of how well the variation in the predicted outputs is r=  (8)
cov(a, a) cov(p, p)

where cov(a, p) is the covariance between a and p sets which

represent the experimental and network predicted output sets,
respectively, and is given by

cov(a, p) = E(a a )(p p )] (9)

where E is the expected value, a and p are the mean value of a

set and p set, respectively. In addition, cov(a, a) and cov(p, p) are the
auto covariances of a and p sets, respectively, and are expressed by

cov(a, a) = E[(a a )2 ] (10)

2
cov(p, p) = E[(p p ) ] (11)

The correlation coefcient ranges between 1 and +1. The r values

closer to +1 indicate a stronger agreement of training and predicted
values, while the values closer to 1 indicate a stronger negative
relationship between training and prediction.
The mean square error is calculated from [6,22,23]

1
N

MSE = (ai pi )2 (12)

N
i=1

The root mean square error gives the dispersion of the experi-
mental data and is dened as

 N
1
RMSE =  (ai pi )2 (13)
N
i=1

where ai and pi is the experimental value and predicted value of i

set, and N is the number of data patterns.
The mean relative error, which shows the mean ratio between
the error and the experimental values, is expressed by the following
equation:
 
1 
N
(a p ) 
MRE =
N
100 i a i  (14)
i
i=1

where N is the number of points in the data set.

Finally, the absolute fraction of variance, a statistical indicator
that can be applied to multiple regression analysis, is determined
from


N
(a pi )2
i=1 i
R2 = 1 N
(15)
p2
i=1 i

The absolute fraction of variance ranges between 0 and 1. The values

Fig. 2. Optimal ANN structure, with a owchart of the BP algorithm. closer to 1 indicate a very good t, while the values closer to 0
 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693 1689

principle of acquiring decision factors to determine the quantity of

hidden nodes and the conguration of hidden layers was presented.
Three formulas which are used to determine the node number
in hidden layer are given by Eqs. (16)(18) [26].


n
CLi > K (16)
i=0

where K is the simple number, if i > L, CLi = 0.

L = m+n+c (17)

where c is a constant which belongs to [1,10].

L = log2 n (18)

When there is only one hidden layer in this ANN model, the
Fig. 3. Dependence between MSE and number of neurons at hidden layer for calculated formula of node number in hidden layer is dened by
LevenbergMarquardt algorithm. [27]

L = mn (19)
indicate a poor t. The computing program for solving the back-
Another empirical formula is put forward. It can be used to
propagation algorithm and evaluating the network performance
determine the node number in hidden layer, and the expression
was implemented under MATLAB environment.
is given by [28]

3.3. Selection of BP algorithm L= 0.43mn + 0.12m2 + 2.54n + 0.77m + 0.86 (20)

In the above ve formulas (Eqs. (16)(20)) [5], L is the node num-

During the course of training, many training functions can
be adopted, including trainlm, trainrp, traingcgb, traingcgf, and
traincgp and so on. In this paper, 11 BP algorithms were com-
pared to select the best suited BP algorithm. For all BP algorithms, a
three-layer ANN with a tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig)
at hidden layer and a linear transfer function (purelin) at output
layer were used. 8 neurons were used in the hidden layer for all
BP algorithms (Fig. 3). Finally, the computed result shows that the
LevenbergMarquardt algorithm with a minimum MSE, r and R2
is used to act as the training function compared to other BP algo-
rithms because it has higher stability and faster convergence rate
than other training algorithms (Table 2).
3.4. Optimization of the ANN structure
The optimal architecture of the ANN model and its parameter
variation were determined based on the minimum value of the MSE
of the training and prediction set. But a trade-off exists when choos-
ing the number of nodes to be contained in a hidden layer between
training time and the accuracy of training. A greater number of
hidden unit nodes results in a longer training period, while fewer
hidden units provide faster training at the cost of having fewer fea-
ture detectors [24]. Too many hidden nodes in an ANN enable the
ANN to over-t the training data set, which produces poor gen-
eralization performance [25]. In this section, the heuristic design
ber in hidden layer, n is the node number in input layer and m is
the node number in output layer. According to above ve formu-
las, it is received that the range of node number in hidden layer
is from 3 to 14. In optimization of the network, 3 neurons were
used in the hidden layer as an initial guess. With an increase in
the number of neurons, the network gave several local minimum
values and different MSE values were obtained for the training set.
Fig. 2 illustrates the dependence between the neuron number and
MSE for the LevenbergMarquardt algorithm selected as the best
BP algorithm.
Fig. 2 depicts that the MSE of the network was much higher
for the 3 (MSE 1.6290) and 4 (MSE 1.1938) hidden neurons than
those with 5 (MSE 0.1948), 6 (MSE 0.1807), 7 (MSE 0.1758), 8 (MSE
0.1063), 9 (MSE 0.1017) and 10 (MSE 0.0950). With 11 hidden neu-
rons, the MSE decreased signicantly from 0.0950 to 0.0511. With
a gradual increase in the number of neurons from 3 to 11, a gradual
decrease was observed in the MSE. With 11 hidden neurons, the
MSE reached its minimum value of 0.0511. Hence, the neural net-
work containing 11 hidden neurons (MSE 0.0511) was chosen as
the best case. When the number of neurons exceeded 11, the MSE
showed a slight increase from 0.0511 to 0.1000 at 12 neurons. A
further increase in the number of neurons from 13 to 14 resulted a
sharp increase from 0.2816 to 0.3012 at 14 neurons. This increment
can be attributed to the characteristics of the MSE performance
index and the input vector used in this study.

Table 2
Comparison of 11 BP algorithms with 8 neurons in the hidden layer.

BP algorithms Function MSE r R2

LevenbergMarquardt backpropagation trainlm 0.0926 0.9954 0.9908

Resilient backpropagation (Rprop) trainrp 0.1768 0.9927 0.9854
PowellBeale conjugate gradient backpropagation traincgb 0.1696 0.9899 0.9800
FletcherReeves conjugate gradient backpropagation traincgf 0.2279 0.9839 0.9680
PolakRibiere conjugate gradient backpropagation traincgp 0.1153 0.9930 0.9861
Batch gradient descent traingd 0.1389 0.9903 0.9879
Variable learning rate backpropagation traingdx 0.7410 0.9682 0.9373
Batch gradient descent with momentum traingdm 11.6185 0.5031 0.2531
BFGS quasi-Newton backpropagation trainbfg 0.1685 0.9897 0.9796
Scaled conjugate gradient backpropagation trainscg 0.2347 0.9863 0.9728
One step secant backpropagation trainoss 0.2564 0.9841 0.9685
1690 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693
Fig. 4. Training, validation and test mean squared errors
LevenbergMarquardt algorithm.
The training was stopped after 50 iterations for the
LevenbergMarquardt algorithm because the differences between
training error and validation error started to increase. Fig. 4 illus-
trates training process, validation and test mean squared errors
for the LevenbergMarquardt algorithm. Finally, the optimal ANN,
together with a owchart of the BP algorithm, is shown in Fig. 1:
a three-layer ANN, with tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig)
at hidden layer with 11 neurons and a linear transfer function
(purelin) at output layer.
4. Results and discussion
After the training process was nished, the next step consists of
comparing the predicted values from ANN model with experimen-
tal values. The accuracy of the ANN model was evaluated on the
basis of the regression analysis between the predicted parameters
and the experimental values. Figs. 513 show the plots of predicted
vs. target values for the output variables, heat absorption capacity,
heating coefcient of efciency, ratio of sensible heat transfer to
Fig. 5. The ANN predictions for the heat absorption capacity of the tower vs. the
experimental value.
the latent heat transfer, outlet air dry-bulb temperature, outlet air
wet-bulb temperature, outlet CaCl2 aqueous solution temperature,
ratio of sensible heat transfer to the total heat transfer, ratio of
latent heat transfer to the total heat transfer and humidity ratio of
moist air difference between inlet and outlet, respectively.
Figs. 513 present the comparison between the actual and pre-
dicted values of the performance parameters of the RUCT. Note that
in all the graphics, the comparisons were made using values only
from the test data set that were not introduced to the ANN during
the training process. In order to the accuracy of the ANN predic-
tions, Figs. 513 are provided with a straight line indicating perfect
prediction and a 5% error band.
A plot of the ANN predictions as a function of the experimen-
tal values for the heat absorption capacity of the tower is shown
in Fig. 5. The ANN predictions for this parameter result in a MRE
of 0.10%, a R2 of 0.8554, a RMSE of 6.2180 kW and a correlation
coefcient (r) of 0.9249 with the experimental data. These results
demonstrate that the ANN predicts the heat absorption capacity
well in the entire range of operating conditions.
However, it must be noted that in the experimental study, the
for the
CaCl2 aqueous solution mass ow rate circulating through the
tower was measured by a variable area ow meter within an accu-
racy of 2.5%. Because the heat absorption capacity was evaluated
using the CaCl2 aqueous solution mass ow rate, as shown in Eq.
(1), it has a relatively poor uncertainty, because in a RUCT, water
vapor would condense from moist air when it is in direct contact
with the chilled CaCl2 aqueous solution. If CaCl2 aqueous solution
loss by carry-over or tower blowdown is neglected, chilled CaCl2
aqueous solution ow rate at tower exit is increased, because of
water added from water vapor condensation. Consequently, this
uncertainty inuences the training process, thus yielding a slightly
poor performance for the heat absorption capacity of the tower (Q)
predictions.
As shown in Fig. 6, the ANN predictions for the CaCl2 aqueous
solution temperature leaving the tower yield a MRE of 0.02%, a R2 of
0.9936, a RMSE of 0.2339 C, and a correlation coefcient of 0.9968
with the experimental data. The ANN predictions for the dry-bulb
temperatures of the air stream leaving the tower as a function of
the experimental ones are reported in Fig. 7. For this parameter, the
ANN yields a MRE of 0.0008%, a R2 of 0.9976, a RMSE of 0.1523 C
and a correlation coefcient of 0.9988. The statistical performances
Fig. 6. The ANN predictions for the CaCl2 aqueous solution temperature leaving the
tower vs. the experimental value.
 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693
Fig. 7. The ANN predicted values for the air dry-bulb temperature leaving the tower
vs. the experimental value.
of the predictions are almost as good as those obtained in Ts,out pre-
dictions. Similarly, the ANN predicts wet-bulb temperature leaving
the tower quite well, as shown in Fig. 8. The results show that the
ANN yields a MRE of 0.19%, a R2 of 0.9947, a RMSE of 0.2169 C and a
correlation coefcient of 0.9973. Again, the predictions for Twba,out
are as accurate as the predictions for Tdba,out because Tdba,out and
Twba,out was all determined directly from the measurements. Conse-
quently, the relative humidity of the air stream can be determined
using the results of the dry and wet-bulb temperature measure-
ments instead of measuring it directly.
The predicted values for heating coefcient of efciency of the
tower as a function of the experimental ones are indicated in Fig. 9.
For this parameter, the ANN yields a MRE of 0.17%, a R2 of 0.8753,
a RMSE of 0.07688 and a correlation coefcient of 0.9356. These
results demonstrate that the ANN predicts the heating coefcient
of efciency well in the entire range of operating conditions. How-
ever, the heating coefcient of efciency of the tower was evaluated
Fig. 8. The ANN predictions for the air wet-bulb temperature leaving the tower vs.
the experimental value.
1691
Fig. 9. The ANN predicted values for heating coefcient of efciency () of the tower
vs. the experimental value.
using the thermodynamic brine-bulb temperature, as shown in Eq.
(4), it has a relatively poor uncertainty, because the concept of
thermodynamic brine-bulb temperature is inuenced by effect of
solution concentration, barometric pressure, air temperature and
air humidity ratio. Consequently, this uncertainty inuences the
training process, thus yielding a slightly poor performance for the
heating coefcient of efciency of the tower predictions.
The predicted values for humidity ratio of moist air difference
between inlet and outlet of the tower as a function of the experi-
mental ones are indicated in Fig. 10. For this parameter, the ANN
yields a MRE of 0.27%, a R2 of 0.9414, a RMSE of 8.946 kg/h and a rel-
atively poor correlation coefcient of 0.9703. This is probably due to
the fact that in the experimental study, the humidity ratio of moist
air difference between inlet and outlet of the tower was determined
using the results of air mass ow rate, because the air mass ow rate
of the tower was measured by a variable area anemograph within
an accuracy of 2.5%. Consequently, the ANN was trained using the
humidity ratio of moist air difference between inlet and outlet of
Fig. 10. The ANN predictions for humidity ratio of moist air difference between inlet
and outlet vs. the experimental value.
1692 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693
Fig. 11. The ANN predictions for the ratio of latent heat transfer to the total heat
transfer () of the tower vs. the experimental value.
the tower data with somewhat high uncertainty, which caused the
network to yield a relatively low correlation coefcient.
The predicted the ratio of latent heat transfer to the total heat
transfer of the tower as a function of the experimental ones are
reported in Fig. 11. For this parameter, the ANN yields a MRE of
0.39%, a R2 of 0.9316, a RMSE of 0.0713 and a relatively poor corre-
lation coefcient of 0.9652. And the predicted ratio of sensible heat
transfer to the total heat transfer of the tower vs. the experimental
value is reported in Fig. 12. For this parameter, the ANN yields a MRE
of 0.32%, a R2 of 0.9222, a RMSE of 0.0502 and a relatively poor corre-
lation coefcient of 0.9603. The predicted values for ratio of sensible
heat transfer to the latent heat transfer of the tower as a function of
the experimental ones are reported in Fig. 13. For this parameter,
the ANN yields a MRE of 0.54%, a R2 of 0.8826, a RMSE of 0.5164 and
a relatively poor correlation coefcient of 0.9395. These are prob-
ably due to the fact that in the experimental study, the latent heat
transfer, the sensible heat transfer and the total heat transfer of the
Fig. 12. The ANN predictions for the ratio of sensible heat transfer to the total heat
transfer () of the tower vs. the experimental value.
Fig. 13. The ANN predicted values for the ratio of sensible heat transfer to the latent
heat transfer () of the tower vs. the experimental value.
tower was determined using the results of inlet and outlet CaCl2
aqueous solution temperature, wet and dry-bulb temperature of
inlet and outlet air, CaCl2 aqueous solution mass ow rate, air mass
ow rate, inlet and outlet air pressure and density of CaCl2 aque-
ous solution measurements. Because the air mass ow rate and
the CaCl2 aqueous solution mass ow rate circulating through the
tower was measured by a variable area ow meter within an accu-
racy of 2.5%. Consequently, the ANN was trained using the latent
heat transfer data, the sensible heat transfer data and the total heat
transfer data with somewhat high uncertainty, which caused the
network to yield a relatively low correlation coefcient.
In order to visualize effects of the developed ANN model, the
ANN predictions for the CaCl2 aqueous solution temperature leav-
ing the tower (Ts,out ), the heat absorption capacity (Q) and heating
coefcient of efciency () of the tower as a function of the ve
parameters are presented in Fig. 14. It is seen that the tests pat-
terns consist of 15 tests. Although data from these tests has not
been introduced to the ANN before, the ANN remarkably predicts
Fig. 14. Comparison of the ANN predictions and experimental values for various
performance parameters of the RUCT.
 J. Wu et al. / Energy and Buildings 43 (2011) 16851693
the three important output parameters for the whole range of the
experiments.
These results demonstrate that the ANN model remarkably pre-
dicts the output parameters of the RUCT for heating system in a
wide range of operating conditions. It is clear that if a higher num-
ber of test runs had been performed to provide a larger amount
of experimental data for training, the ANN would have performed
even better.
5. Conclusions
The main goal of this study was to describe the approach fol-
lowed to set up an articial neurons network model based on
back-propagation algorithm that was found to be practically appli-
cable to a reversibly used mechanical draft cooling tower under
cross ow conditions for heat pump heating system in winter. In
this work, real data of an existing operating reversibly used cool-
ing tower heating system using heat pump was used to derive an
ANN systems model to predict the performance characteristics of
the RUCT. After back-propagation training combined with princi-
pal component analysis, the three-layer ANN model was able to
predict the performance characteristics of the RUCT with a tangent
sigmoid transfer function (tansig) at hidden layer with 11 neurons
and a linear transfer function (purelin) at output layer.
The performance of the ANN predictions was measured using
correlation coefcient, absolute fraction of variance, mean rela-
tive error and root mean square error. This proposed ANN model
showed a precise and an effective prediction of the experimen-
tal data with a satisfactory correlation coefcient in the range
of 0.92490.9988, the absolute fraction of variance in the range
of 0.87530.9976, and the mean relative error in the range of
0.00080.54%, moreover, the root mean square error values for the
ANN training and predictions were very low relative to the range of
the experiments. To conclude, a simulation based on the ANN model
can provide a further contribution to develop a better understand-
ing of the dynamic behaviour of process of the RUCT where still
some phenomena cannot be explained in all detail.
This study reveals that the RUCT can alternatively be modeled
using ANN model within a high degree of accuracy and reliability
for predicting the performance characteristics. Furthermore, the
neural network presented does not require understanding the heat
and mass transfer of the RUCT, which is actually a very complex
phenomenon to be expressed by mathematical formulations. Con-
sequently, the ANN technique can be used effectively for predicting
the performance characteristics of RUCT under various operating
conditions, then providing the theoretical basis on the research of
heat and mass transfer inside RUCT under cross ow conditions,
which is important for design and running control of the RUCT
system.
Acknowledgements
The research reported herein has been carried out with the
help of the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China
during the 11th Five-year Plan Period (Nos. 2006BAJ04A05 and
2006BAJ04A13). These supports are gratefully acknowledged.
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