Cooling Tower Description - Typical Values of Design Variables
A cooling tower is a special type of heat exchanger in which the warm water and the air are brought in direct contact for evaporative cooling . It must provide a very good contact of air and water in terms of the contact area and mass transfer coefficient of water vapor while keeping the air pressure drop low. Figure 1 A single deck spray pond cooling system. In the early years of industrial development, cooling of warm water for reuse was done in “ spray ponds ”. In a spray pond, as the name implies, a spray system located about six to eight feet above the water surface creates small droplets of warm water that cool down by evaporation in contact with air. This is simple and easy process but required a large pond area. It is inefficient (the effective heat transfer coefficient is about 3.5 Btu/h.ft 2 .°F or 20 W/m 2 .K), and creates the problem of entrainment and carryover...