THERMODYNAMIC LABORATORY

Duhok Polytechnic University

Technical College of Engineering
Chemical Engineering Department
Class: Second, 2021 - 2022

Lecturer's Name: Experiment No. (5)

Mr. Majid Ali Group (A2)

Title of Experiment:

Cooling Tower

Student Name:

Hayder Hassan Hussain

Date of experiment: 15/2/2022

Date of submission: 1/3/2022

Table of Contents Page
Introduction: ............................................................................................ 1

Purpose: .................................................................................................... 3

THEORY .................................................................................................. 4

Psychometric chart .................................................................................. 6

Equipment: ............................................................................................... 7

Experimental Procedure: ....................................................................... 8

Reding & Calculation: ............................................................................ 9

Discussion: .............................................................................................. 10

Conclusion: ............................................................................................. 12

Refence: .................................................................................................. 13
Introduction:
Cooling tower is a heat rejection device, which rejecting the waste hot air
into the atmosphere through the cooling of water stream to a lower temperature.
Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat
and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or in closed circuit
dry cooling towers, rely solely on the air to cool the working fluid to near the dry-
bulb air temperature. The cost for this process is inexpensive and very dependable
by removing a low amount of heat from the process. Commonly, the applications
of the cooling towers included; oil refineries, petrochemical, thermal power
stations and chemical plants. Basically, the cooling process in the industry will
involve the cooling tower system.

There are many types of cooling towers that has been used in many
applications. We can see the difference of the cooling towers by knowing how the
air and water interact in open cooling tower and closed cooling towers. Open
cooling towers is also called the direct cooling tower in which is allows the water
to come into contact with outside air. Some water must be added when cooled
water is returned from the cooling tower to be used again. During the process, the
pollutant will able to enter into the tower, thus this pollutant need to filtered out.

The laboratory cooling tower allows the speed of fans (blower or damper)
to be controlled for cooling the warm return water and the pump is used to return
the cooled water to the water heater. This experiment is conducted to show the
mass and heat transfer in the system and also the mass and the energy balance for
the closed system and to study how the adjustment of difference parameters can a
affect the performance of the system in removing the heat from the process.

In a counter current cooling tower, the water stream is introduced at the top
of the tower and falls over or circulated in the packing materials which are used to
increase the surface area for the heat transfer process. This water stream is exposed
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to the air that is flowing upward through the tower in order to remove the hot air.
The gas-liquid interface in contact with each other will evaporate the water into
the air stream. At this stage, the latent heat of evaporation is carried into the bulk
air by the water vapor, and then heat will remove from water as its temperature
decreases. Latent heat of evaporation is the energy needed to change the state water
from liquid into gas at constant temperature.

In this experiment, energy enter and leaving the system involving the study
of the first law of thermodynamics at a work in the system. Enthalpy can be defined
as thermodynamic potential or is define in equation:

H =U +PV -------- EQUATION 1

Were,
H = enthalpy
U= internal energy
P= pressure
V= volume
The combination of the term U+PV is the form of heat or energy. The
enthalpy of the system depends on the fluid as the working fluid. In this
experiment, the fluid used is air and water. Thus, the enthalpy can be determined
by referring to the table at certain temperature and pressure. The temperature of
the inlet and outlet of the system is recorded; thus, the temperature is used as
reference to determine the enthalpy of water. The enthalpy of outlet cooled water
can be determined by using equation:

∑ H ¿=∑ H out ------ EQUATION 2

The enthalpy of the air can be determined by two methods. The first method
is by assuming the air is ideal gas since the pressure of the gas is low. Thus, the
enthalpy of the air can be calculated by equation:

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 ∆ H =CpdT ---------------- EQUATION 3

Where, Cp is the specific heat with respect to constant pressure and dT is

difference in temperature.
The second method is by using psychrometric chart. The information needed
to use this chart is dry bulb and wet bulb temperature of inlet and outlet of the
system, that can be recorded from the experiment.

Purpose:
To study and simulate the operation of the cooling tower and draw
processes that happen inside the cooling tower using a psychometric chart.

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THEORY

The cooling tower experiment operates according to the First Law of

Thermodynamics which is the conversation of energy. Energy can neither be
destroy nor created, just transformed from one another to another. Energy that
enters the cooling tower is in the form of hot water.
This hot water was cooled from temperature T1 to a temperature T2. The cooling
of the hot water was in the formed of forced convection by which ambient air at T1
was blown over the hot water and exited the cooling tower at some temperature T2.
The data of both the entrance and the exit temperature was recorded.
The main component of the energy balance is enthalpy which is defined as:

H = U + PV
H = enthalpy

U= internal energy
P= pressure
This equation is related to the heat as it is used to calculate the enthalpy of the
system. Enthalpy can be calculated or reference from tables of data for the fluid
being used. In this experiment we used the air and water as the fluids in the cooling
tower. Enthalpy values can be obtained from a thermodynamic textbook. The
enthalpy of the output cooled water can be similarly reference and an energy
balance can be conducted for the water. The equation below displays the general
method to conduct an energy balance:
∑∆H in = ∑∆H out
Where ∆H = H in – H out
The change in enthalpy for air can be determined from either of two methods. Since
the air is at low pressure, it can be treated as an ideal gas and the enthalpy changed
can be calculated through the use of the following equation:
∆H = CP ∆ T(3)

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Where ∆H is the change in enthalpy, ∆T is the change in temperature and Cp is the
specific heat with respect to constant pressure.
As water going into the cooling tower, it loses energy. The enthalpy of the
water going into the tower can be determined using the enthalpy of saturated liquid
water in a steam table. The enthalpy of the water coming out of the tower can be
determined in the same way. The data in the steam tables are usually not given for
every temperature so linear interpolation must be performed to determine the
enthalpy at the desired temperature. Then the enthalpy of the water is multiplied
by the mass flow rate. A basis of an operation of 1 minute was chosen to make the
calculation easier. The change in enthalpy for the water is determined by:

∆H water = ∆H water-out - ∆H water-in

The change in energy of the air can be determined using the same methodology as
was used for water. The enthalpy change is shown as

∆Hair = ∆Hair-out - ∆Hair-in

However, the determination of the enthalpy of air is more complicated than the
determination of the enthalpy values of the water stream. Now that the mass flow
rate of dry air is known, the enthalpy values of the in and out streams can be
determined. The change in enthalpy of the water should have a negative value, and
the change in enthalpy of the air should have positive value.
Theoretically, when two values are added together, the result should be zero. This
can be shown by the first law of thermodynamics where:

∆H water = ∆H air

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Psychometric chart

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Equipment:
1- Air distribution chamber.
2- A tank with heaters to simulate cooling loads of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kW.
3- A make-up tank.
4- A centrifugal fan with intake damper.
5- Pump.
6- A water collecting basin.
7- An electrical control panel.
8- Packed column.
9- Column cap.
10- Temperature indicator.
11- Inclined tube manometer.
12- Variable area flow meter.

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Experimental Procedure:

1- Fill water in make-up tank, the level of the water should always be greater
than the mark of minimum level on the load tank.
2- Fill water at two positions of the wet bulb temperature (inlet and outlet air
positions).
3- Switch on the experiment.
4- Open the cover of air intake damper to set the air flow rate such that the
pressure drop through the tower is 16 mm H2O.
5- Set water flow rate at 40 g/sec.
6- Switch on the heater at 1 kw .
7- Read all temperature each 5 min. until system reached steady state.
8- Fill water in make-up tank up to the mark and note the volume of evaporated
in 10 minutes to find rate of evaporation.
9- For final reading Plot process on the psychrometric chart and.
10- Calculate mass of air flow rate 𝑚̇a , ΔḢ of system, evaporating rate, make up
rate (𝑀̇𝐸) , cooling range, approach to wet bulb.

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Reding & Calculation:

T1 = 24.2℃ T2 = 20.9℃ T3 = 22.4℃

T4 = 20.9℃ T5 = 26.5℃ T6 = 20.3℃
T7 = 24.2℃

Mass of water flow rate = 40g/s = 0.04 kg/s

Orifice differential (X H2O = 16 mm =0.016 m)
Cooling load = 1KW

Makeup:
h= 3.1 cm = 0.031m
d= 6.9 cm = 0.069 m
time = 5 min = 300 sec
𝜋
𝑚̇ E = D2 h * 𝜌
4
𝜋
𝑚̇ E = (0.069)2 (0.031) (1000)
4
𝑚̇ E = 0.11586 Kg

m 0.11586 Kg
mE=
t 300 s

𝑚̇ E= 3.862*10-4 kg/s

WA= 0.0116 , hA= 53.84 , VA= 0.8584 m3 / kg

WB= 0.015 , hB= 60.7352 , VB= 0.8578 m3 / kg

ma= 1.87*103 kg/s

hE= Cp*T1= 4.187 * 24.2
hE= 101.3254 KJ/Kg
Q-P=ΔḢ + ∆𝐾𝐸
Q-p=1-(-0.1)=1.1 KW
ΔḢ = ṁa(ℎ𝐵 − ℎ𝐴) − ṁ𝐸 ℎ𝐸
= (1.87*10-3)(60.7352-53.84)-3.862*10-4 (101.3254)
= -0.02624 KW
𝑚̇ E=ma(WB-WA)= 1.87*10-3 (0.015-0.0116)
𝑚̇ E= 6.358*10-6 Kg/s

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Discussion:
Q1/ For what purpose used this cooling tower. and what are the types of
cooling tower? Explain them?
Cooling towers were designed to remove excess heat from industrial water
and disperse it into the biosphere.
a- Counter flow cooling towers.
b- Induced draft cooling towers.
c- Passive draft cooling towers.

Q2/ Which temperature is greater, web bulb temperature or dry bulb

temperature? And why.
Because the air movement on the wet bulb creates a low temperature, the dry
bulb temperature is higher than the wet bulb temperature.

Q3/ If the Twb = 30 OC and Tdb = 30 OC, what are you expect Relative Humidity
to be?
The relative humidity will remain the same.

Q4/ what are error source occurring in this experiment and how to reduce it?
Increase the fun pace and therefore take use of move evaporative cooling to
lessen the reading collected from the thermometer during the experiment,
which may not have been totally accurate.

Q5/ check whether the right side of this equation equals left hand side. and
discuss result. 𝐐̇ – 𝐏 = 𝚫𝐇̇ + 𝚫𝐊̇𝐄
𝐐̇ – 𝐏 = ma (hB-hA)-mE hE
1-(-0.1)=1.87*10-3 (60.7352-53.84)-3.862*10-4(101.3254)
1.1 KW= - 0.02624 KW
Both sides not equal 𝐐̇ – 𝐏 ≠ 𝚫𝐇̇ + 𝚫𝐊̇𝐄

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Q6/ check whether the Evaporation rate equal make up rate. and discuss
result.

𝜋
mE= 𝐷4 h 𝜌 ÷ time
4
𝜋
mE = (0.069)2 (0.031)(1000) ÷ 60 * 5
4

= 3.862 * 10-4 Kg/s

Evaporation rate = ma(WB-WA)
= 1.87*10-3(0.015-0.0116)=6.358*10-6Kg/s
mE≠ Evaporation rate

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Conclusion:
In this experiment we understand what cooling tower is, its purpose is to reject
the unwanted heat from a building or process. The types of cooling water (1) Natural
Draft Cooling Towers – This type of cooling tower depends on convection alone.
Since it does not have a mechanical fan, the convection process helps circulate the
air within the tower. Because warm and moist air naturally comes up and cold dry air
goes down, this creates a continuous cycle of air without the need for electric
consumption. (2) Induced Draft Cooling Towers – On the other hand, this type of
cooling tower uses a mechanical fan. With the use of the fan, the air is actively blown
within the tower. In this way, the cooling process starts. This is more effective than
the natural draft, but it is definitely much more expensive. The dry bulb always is
greater than wet bulb when water evaporates, heat is removed from the surrounding
air and temperature decreases. Twb= 30 C and Tdb= 30 C, the relative humidity is
100% from the chart psychometric. The error sources in our experiment were human
errors when recording the reading, the device didn’t reach to steady state, till we
forgot dry the air entering and exit sensor in order that has been error, so to reduce
the error the device should be stable and the quantity of water in load tank and make
up must be enough and be measured.
Q –P=ΔH +ΔK E

The right side of the equation nearly to the left side lastly it doesn’t equal
may be the reasons are human errors and when we took the values from chart
were not accurate, also the pump and heater maybe they are not giving the
enough quantity required Evaporator rate=make up rate.

Our results are nearly, but not equal so there is a simple difference maybe
because the psychometric chart that we were taking the inaccurate values.

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Refence:
Thermocouple Technical Information. (2009, June 23). Retrieved from Peak Sensors:
http://www.peaksensors.co.uk/thermocoupledatasheets.html
Sugar Engineers' Library. (n.d.). Retrieved June 23, 2009, from Psychrometric Calculations:
http://www.sugartech.co.za/psychro/index.php

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