Study on the heat transfer characteristics of an evaporative cooling tower

Abstract

In the present study, both experimental and theoretical results of the heat transfer characteristics of the cooling tower are investigated. A column packing unit is fabricated from the laminated plastic plates consists of eight layers. Air and water are used as working fluids and the test runs are done at the air and water mass flow rates ranging between 0.01 and 0.07 kg/s, and between 0.04 and 0.08 kg/s, respectively. The inlet air and inlet water temperatures are 23 °C, and between 30 and 40 °C, respectively. A mathematical model based on the conservation equations of mass and energy is developed and solved by an iterative method to determine the heat transfer characteristics of the cooling tower. There is reasonable agreement from the comparison between the measured data and predicted results. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.