New Approach to Determine the Heat+transfer Coefficients for Cooling Tower Packing

Abstract

The heat input response technique was developed to determine the heat-transfer coefficients for a forced draught cooling tower packing. The method was applied to a counter current type air-water contact system in a packed bed. A temperature change was alternately imposed on inlet air at the tower bottom and on inlet water at the tower top. Outlet temperatures of air and water were measured with time. From zeroth moments of these temperature changes, water-film and air-film heat-transfer coefficients have been estimated. Finally, the effect of the water/air loading ratio and the packing material, such as wood, aluminium wire netting and plastic PVC on the values of the heat-transfer coefficients was experimentally tested. An empirical relationship between the gas-side heat-transfer coefficient, liquid-side heat-transfer coefficient and water/gas ratio has been established within the range of the tested data.