BY

RATHISH K
 COOLING TOWERS
•What is a cooling tower ?
•Why cooling towers are used ?
•Where it is used ?
•How it works ?
•What are the different types available ?
•How to size a cooling tower ?
•How to select a cooling tower ?
•What about the cooling tower piping ?
•Where to place a cooling tower ?
•Why water treatment is required ?
•What are the relevant codes ?
What is a cooling tower ?
Cooling towers are heat exchangers that are used to dissipate large
heat loads to the atmosphere.
Why cooling towers should be used ??
Water is the most efficient way of dissipating unwanted heat. The most
commercial buildings and industries use water to cool their HVAC and
process machinery. A cooling tower is the most important piece of
equipment in any industry whose primary purpose is to remove heat
while minimizing water usage.
The amount of water consumed for cooling varies with the type of
cooling system employed.
Once Through System – The cooling water passes through the heat
exchange equipment only once. Water is simply drawn from estuary,
lake or river to the process equipment / heat exchange equipment and
discharged back to river. This system is used where large volume of
cooling water is required and where the water is available in
abundance.
What if abundant water is not available ???
There are many options available…..

• Dry cooling towers

• Wet cooling towers
• Hybrid wet-dry cooling towers

Dry towers or closed re-circulation system use the same cooling water
repeatedly in a continuous cycle. No direct contact of water with air.
Consumes little water but very costly to construct since mass flow rates
associated a quite high.

Wet towers provide direct contact between the cooling water and air
passing through the tower. These towers rely on the latent heat
of evaporation to exchange heat between the process and the air
passing through the tower.

Hybrid towers add heat to the airflow prior to discharge through the
cooling tower fan stack to eliminate any visible plume.
Schematic of a dry cooling tower
 Wet cooling tower

Site: Vikram Ispat Mumbai.

Schematic of Hybrid Wet-Dry Cooling tower

Kakkonda Geothermal power plant – 30 Mw

Tohoku Electric, Toshiba Engineering and
Construction Co.
Where we need cooling towers ?
• Essential equipment in almost all the process industries, fertilizer
complexes, petrochemical industries and air conditioning systems
apart from our dear power plants

The figure provides a schematic arrangement of a cooling application in a

process industry where plant heat exchangers (HE) are cooled with water. The
pump keeps the water re-circulation through heat exchangers where it picks up
heat and distributes on to the cooling tower. The heat is released from water
through evaporation.
The cold water enters the HE for cooling. The resulting hot water from HE is
sent back to cooling tower.The make-up water source is used to replenish
around 2% of water lost to evaporation and drift.
 How a cooling tower works ?
• All cooling towers work on the same principle of evaporation as the
main mode of heat transfer
• An amount of heat is also removed by sensible heat transfer
• The hot water enters the tower at the top and is distributed within
the structure in a manner that exposes a very large water surface
to the air passing through.
• Water distribution is obtained by means of spray nozzles or
distribution pans and by means of various types of fill media.
• A cooling tower accomplishes the passage of air across the mesh to
have direct contact with the falling water so that some of the water
evaporates, this eventually cools the stream of water
• Some of the water is lost due to evaporation; the water is
constantly added to cooling tower basin to make up the difference.
• Each pound of water evaporated, removes approx. 1000 BTU of
heat from the water and thereby lowers its temp.
• Evaporation occurs when the WBT of air is lower than the DBT of
air.
• WBT-Wet bulb temperature is a measure of relative
humidity.Closer its towards DBT-Dry bulb temperature higher
the relative humidity
• WBT is measured using sling psychrometer which is nothing but
a thermometer having wet cloth wrapping its bulb.
• WBT=DBT corresponds to 100% relative humidity that implies
the air is fully saturated.That means air cant accept any
moisture afterwards or wont support evaporation.
• The sensible heat transfer occurs when DBT of air is less than
the DBT of water.
• 80% of cooling tower is through evaporation and the balance is
through the sensible cooling.
Cooling tower Performance
Equations and relevant terms associated with cooling
towers
The total heat balance between air and water,expressed
as a differential equation
Gdh=Ldt + GdH(t2-32) (1)
Where G=Mass flow of air through the tower- lb/min
dh=Change in enthalpy of the air-Btu/lb
L= Mass flow rate of water entering the
tower-lb/min
dt=Change in temperature of the water
dH=Change in humidity ratio of the
air lb vapour/lb dry air
t2= Cold water temperature leaving the tower oF
t2-32 = Expression of water enthalpy at cold
water temperature-Btu/lb
The expression “Ldt” in equation (1) represents the heat load
imposed on the tower
Heat load = gpm x R x 8 1/3 Btu/min
where gpm = water flow rate – gal/min
R = Difference between hot and
cold water temperatures – deg.F
8 1/3 = Pounds per gallon of water
Another important term associated with cooling
towers is approach so where does approach come
into picture ???
The approach dictates the theoretical limit to the leaving
cold water temperature and is a function of ambient wet
bulb temperature. How ??
The approach is the difference between the cold water
temperature and ambient wet bulb temperature.
No matter the size of the cooling tower, range or heat load,
it is not possible to cool the water below the wet bulb
temperature of air with evaporative air cooling.
Design wet bulb temperature (DWBT)
A single wet bulb reading will allow a prediction of cooling tower
performance at that condition but the wet bulb changes through
out the day and year. Typically a WBT that doesn’t exceed 5% of
the total hours in a year is the design wet bulb temp.
Now some lighter stuff.
What are different types of cooling towers??
• Natural Draft
• Mechanical Draft

Cross flow Counter flow

Natural Draft Cooling Towers
• Characteristic hyperbolical shape.
• Operates on a chimney principle that allows the air movement on
density differential.
• No fans,motors,gear boxes etc & tall stack insures against
recirculation of air.
• Generally used for flow rates > 2 lakh gallon/min
Mechanical Draft Cooling towers
• Large fans to force air through the circulating water
• The water falls downwards over fill surfaces which help to
increase the contact time between water and air
Types of Mechanical Draft Towers
Counter Flow Induced Draft
Cross Flow Forced Draft

Cross Flow Cooling Tower

In Cross-Flow towers, air moves
horizontally through the fill
across the downward fall of
water.
Counter Flow Cooling Towers
Here air moves Vertically upward through the fill,counter to the
downward fall of water. Water is distributed across the fill using a
system of headers, feed pipes and sprays.
Comparative Analysis (Counter-flow v/s Cross-flow)
The analysis is made on the following distinctive parameters(selected)
1. Space and size Constraints
Counter flow towers tend to be compact section of water just before
it falls into the basin
2. Operating weight
Counter flow towers offer low operating weight
3. Operating costs
Counter flow tower require increased fan horse power resulting from
airflow in direct opposition to water flow.Hence operating costs are
Higher.
4. Limitations
Counter flow tower require airflow on all sides for optimum
performance.
5. Initial Cost
Counter flow towers are typically expensive.
Cooling Tower Capacities & Availability
Packaged Cooling Towers
Packaged towers are the one where the first or essentially all
assembly is done at the manufactures plant.These kind of towers
are available in sizes up to 10000 gpm.
Field erected Cooling Towers
As name suggests they are either assembled or erected at
site.These towers can handle flow rates from 10000 to 35000gpm
Many a times, towers are constructed so that they can be ganged
together to achieve desired capacity.2 or more tower ganged
together constitute a cell.Towers are referred by the number of
cells an assembly have i.e. a five cell cooling tower.
Cooling tower materials
Lumber
Redwood is the most preferred construction material for cooling
towers because of its natural non-decay characteristics.Douglas Fir is
the second preferred choice.All wood used in a cooling tower need a
pre-preservative treatment to prevent decay.
Galvanised steel
This material find useful for packaged cooling towers. G-235 is a
material which is widely used for the construction of such towers.
Durability / lifespan is the mantra of these towers.
Stainless steel
SS-type 304 is recommended for cooling towers that are to be used in
a highly corrosive duty
Concrete
Larger towers are generally made of concrete.For natural draft
cooling towers its more or less a default material.
Fibre-Reinforced Plastic (FRP)
Fibreglass has been used in cooling tower piping, fan stacks and siding
for many years with great success due to its low maintenance
requirements, resistance to moisture, and material properties that
allow a range of water temperatures and pH.
Now lets peep into the cooling tower…..
What are the components that keep it going ?
Wet Deck or Fill
It’s the heart of a cooling tower.its function is to maximize water and
air contact. Fills can be either splash or film type.
• With splash fill,water falls over successive layers of horizontal
splash bars,continuously breaking into smaller droplets thus wetting
the fill surface(cross flow fills)

• Film fill consists of thin,closely spaced plastic surfaces over which

the water spreads,forming a thin film in contact with the air.These
surfaces may be flat, corrugated, honeycombed or other
patterns.(counter flow fills)
Splash fills.

Film flow fins

Drift eliminators
Eliminators are used to capture water droplets entrapped in the air
discharging from the cooling tower.

Spray Tree
Its function is to distribute water over the wet deck fill.Nozzles
mounted on the spray tree provide the water sprays to wet the
fill.Uniform water distribution at the top of the fill is essential to
achieve proper wetting of the entire fill surface.
Cold water basins
Its function is to collect cooled water at the bottom of the tower.They
are an integral part of factory-assembled designs and are built in
place-typically of concrete-for field erected towers.The cold-water
basin located at or near the bottom of the tower.
Air inlet screens
It’s the point of entry for air entering a tower.The inlet may take up an
entire side of a tower(cross flow design) or be located low on the side
or the bottom(counter flow designs).
Ladders and handrails
They are necessary for large field erected cooling towers and make
sense on some factory assembled designs.
Fans
They provide the airflow for mechanical draft cooling towers.Generally
propeller fans are used on induced draft towers.Both propeller and
centrifugal fans are found on forced draft models.Automatic pitch
blades can vary airflow in response to changing load conditions.
How can we size the cooling tower ?
The heat load, range, approach, and WBT affect the cooling tower
size.We shall see when 3 of these 4 quantities are held constant,
tower size varies as follows.
Heat Load

Tower size varies directly

and linearly with heat
load, which is evident
from the head load
equation.
Since the tower has to
handle large flow rates
its size will naturally
increase.
Range

Tower size varies inversely with range.

Two Primary factors account for this. First increasing the range
keeping the approach constant will result in the increase of the
driving force. i.e the difference between the incoming hot water
temperature and the entering wet bulb temperature.Second
increasing the range at a constant heat load requires the water flow
rate to be decreased.
Approach
Wet bulb temperature
Graphs Courtesy:Marley Cooling
technologies,Inc
Tower size varies inversely with
the approach.As the selected
approach is reduced,tower size
increases exponentially. For that
reason,it is not customary in the
industry to guarantee any
approach of less than 5 deg F.
Tower size varies inversely with
wet-bulb temperature.When heat
load,range and approach values
are fixed,reducing the design
WBT increases the size of the
tower.The is because most of the
heat transfer occurs by
evaporation and airs ability to
absorb moisture reduces with
temperature
What affects cooling tower selection ?

To select a cooling tower, the water flow rate, water inlet temperature,
water outlet temperature and ambient wet bulb temperatures must be
known.

When selecting the cooling tower,one must determine the design heat
rejection load along with the design WBT for the geographical area and
desired range.Water flow is determined by the heat load and range.

Tower Manufacturers provide performance curves or computer

simulations to predict the tower performance over the expected
operating range.

Many choices and decisions along with good engineering judgement is

required to properly select a tower.
How to prepare a cooling tower specification ?
Be sure your specification to cooling tower manufacturers stipulates at
least the following.
• Flow rate (gal/min)
• Total heat rejection (Btu/hr)
• Cold water temperature (deg F)
• Hot water temperature (deg F)
• Design wet bulb temperature (deg F)
• Elevation above sea level (ft)
• Tower type (Cross flow or Counter flow)
• Materials of Construction
• Fill media choice
• Water Quality
• Noise limitations
• Permissible Drift loss
• Scope Demarcation (Who is responsible for basin, external piping, electrical
hook up etc ?)
• Economic considerations
What about cooling tower performance & operating
efficiency ?
These to a large extent is dependant on controls.
Automatic Controls are provided for controlling the leaving
CWT,Chemical feed rate to maintain water chemistry,Blow-down etc.
When wooden cooling towers are used automatic fire suppression
systems as per NFPA 214 is required.

CWT leaving a tower falls

• As the WBT drops
• During lean load periods in process
• During winter
Some processes can be adversely affected if cooling water supply gets
too cold.
The capacity control / temperature control is best achieved by air flow
modulation. Achieved by varying fan speeds.
Freezing conditions are tackled by cold insulation and heat tracings.
What about CT piping & installation considerations ?
• Piping between the cooling tower basin and the pump is most
critical.
• Factory Strainers are typically provided inside the cooling tower, still
a large, low restriction inline strainer should be installed in the
suction piping.
• Suction lines should be short in length & velocities should be
between 7-10 ft/sec.
• Discharge piping is less critical but like all piping it should be
installed as symmetrically as possible on multi cell installations to
provide a naturally balanced flow through out the system
• Cooling towers utilizing multiple inlet gravity water distribution
systems must have flow control valves to allow field adjustment.
Systems with spray nozzles, on the other hand, display a natural
tendency to balance and don’t require any flow control valves.
• Equalizer lines are provided by connecting the sumps together to
combat any imbalances and hence to keep sump levels nearly equal
through out the cells.
• Never mix blow-through and draw-through tower in the same cell.
• As a rule of thumb avoid mixing tower types wherever possible.
• When the inlet flow rate to a cooling tower becomes too low, it is
appropriate to shut off selected cells in order to force more water
into others.
• Sizing the make-up line is relatively easy. Calculate the evaporation
rate, double it as a generous allowance for bleed and select the line
for about 7 ft/sec.

Pressurised distribution system Gravity water distribution

and nozzles system
Suction strainers Mechanical float valve

Ice affected fills

What are the layout considerations ?

Tower location is critical to take advantage of prevailing winds and

avoid air bypass conditions that will penalize tower performance and
increase energy use.Obstructions to air flow can cause two problems
• Recirculation is a phenomenon where the moist discharge air is
somehow redirected back into the air inlet.The increased moisture
content in the air inhibits evaporation and reduces cooling capacity.
•Starving the tower for air.Reduced air flow inhibits the tower’s
ability to evaporate water.
Cooling tower location
• should be away from process area,preferably downstream
direction of wind so that the water vapour and air emission doesn’t
affect the metallic structures of the plant.
• if more than one cooling tower is involved,they should if possible
be oriented crosswise (at 90 deg) to the prevailing wind, to lessen
the possibility of recirculation
Why cooling water treatment is required ?
Open recirculating cooling systems are subjected to a variety of
problems.
• Evaporation increases dissolved solids concentration and
subsequent corrosion and deposition tendencies
• Higher temperatures increase corrosion potential
•Longer retention time and warmer water increase the potential for
microbial growth
Water treatment is provided to keep the water quality sufficient to
prevent scaling, corrosion and biological fouling that can affect normal
productive operations
COC-cycle of concentration is an important term used in CT operation.
It is defined as a factor of level of impurities in the cooling water with
respect to its corresponding level in the make up water.

The total dissolved solids (TDS) of the circulating water is not allowed
exceeding 2500 ppm. So that the corrosion and scaling problems are
kept under control. Let the TDS of makeup water be 800 ppm.
Then the system is not allowed to operate more than 2500/800=3.1
cycles of operation.
It will be of use to examine the water balance of the system
Make up water (M)=water lost { through evaporation(V) + bleed(B) +
drift (D) }
Ignoring drift losses, We have M=V+B
In order to keep off from making scale, all of the solids that enter as
make-up must exit as bleed
Therefore M=cycles x B
So we get bleed B =V/(cycles-1)
As a piping person these information will help us to perform makeup
water line sizing/bleed line sizing.Here in IDEA we will get these
information from PPE dept.
What are the relevant codes/standards that I should refer ?

C T I – Cooling Tower Institute is NPO comprised of cooling tower

users,manufacturers and related service providers.Its best known for
its test specifications.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air conditioning
Engineers,ASHRAE publications provide most of the weather data,the
design wet bulb temperature.
Within the industry, standards for cooling towers are set up by C T I
When a tower is specified as a C T I code tower, the following
standards become the part of the specification(if applicable)
• STD-103 Red wood lumber specification
• ATC-105 Acceptance Test code
• STD-111 Gear speed reducers
• STD-201 Certification Standard for commercial water cooling
towers
The advanced simulation and computing (ASC) program
Terascale simulation facility (TSF) is being constructed to
provide power and space to accommodate 2 simultaneous 100
terraOps class computer systems.TSF is the home for next
generation supercomputers.
Simulation is a cornerstone of NNSA(National Nuclear
Security Administration) stockpile stewardship program to
ensure the safety & reliabilty of US nuclear weapons without
testing.
Excavation for Cooling Tower area
Cooling tower piping initial stages
Under Ground piping for Cooling Towers – Dec 2002
Another view of underground piping for cooling towers
Forms and rebar for the base of the cooling towers –
Installing rebar and forms for the basins of the cooling
towers
Basins of a cooling tower
Concrete cooling tower basin with piping
Cooling water pipes installed in a trench
Construction of cooling tower begins
cooling tower takes shape
Additional progress
Here it is……
Cooling tower installation almost complete
A large fan on the top of the cooling tower
Fan shroud
Piping and pumps are installed on cooling towers
Pumps and piping for cooling tower