Experimental and numerical analysis of the forced draft wet cooling tower

Abstract

Cooling towers are essentially large boxes designed to maximize the evaporation of water. The inlet water temperature and water to air mass flow rate ratio (L/G) significantly affect the performance of the cooling tower. The number of a transfer unit (NTU), Merkel number (Me), Lewis number (Le), and efficiency of the cooling tower define the performance of the forced cooling tower. In this research paper, different inlet water temperatures ranging from 28 °C to 42 °C and (L/G) ranging from 0.5, 1, and 1.5 were used to investigate the performance of the forced cooling tower. Mathematical modeling equations were used to calculate NTU, Me, Le, and efficiency at different inlet water temperatures and (L/G). Engineering equation solver (EES) software was used to solve these mathematical modeling equations. Further, an experimental investigation was carried to find forced cooling tower performance at different inlet water temperatures and (L/G), and results were compared with the theoretical results. The results revealed that increasing the inlet water temperature, NTU, Me, Le, and efficiency increased and were directly related to each other. Further, NTU and efficiency were increased by increasing (L/G). At the same time, the Me and Le reduced with (L/G). Finally, an acceptable and better agreement has been obtained between experimental and theoretical results. Based on obtained results, it has been concluded that higher values of inlet water temperature and (L/G) provided the higher performance of the forced cooling tower.