i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

w w w . i i fi i r . o r g

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Calculations on performance characteristics of counterflow

reversibly used cooling towers
Quan Zhang a,b, Jiasheng Wu a,b, Guoqiang Zhang a,b,*, Jin Zhou a,b, Yonghui Guo a,b,
Wei Shen a,b
a
b

College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China

Key Lab of Building Safety and Energy Efficiency, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, China

article info

abstract

Article history:

This paper aims at developing an analytical model for the coupled heat and mass transfer

Received 1 August 2011

processes in a counterflow Reversibly Used Cooling Tower (RUCT) based on operating

Received in revised form

conditions, which is more realistic than most conventionally adopted Merkel approxima-

23 October 2011

tions. Temperature and moisture content differences are chosen as the driving forces of

Accepted 29 October 2011

heat and mass transfer correspondingly and a system of specific difference equations is

Available online 6 November 2011

developed to solve the model more efficiently. The model is investigated by using an
iterative algorithm, which is validated with the experimental data reported. The analytical

Keywords:

model also accommodates the direct and quick calculation of air and water temperature

Cooling tower

profiles, moisture content of air and the water mass flow rate change along the vertical

Reversible

length of the RUCT. With the aid of the developed model, the thermal behavior of the

Counterflow

counterflow RUCT under various operating and environmental conditions is also studied in

Heating

this paper. The results reveal that the proposed model can provide a theoretical foundation

Heat transfer

for practical design and performance evaluation of counterflow RUCT.

Mass transfer

2011 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Numerical analysis

Calcul des caracteristiques de performance des tours de

refroidissement reversibles a contre-courant
Mots cles : Tour de refroidissement ; Reversible ; Contre-courant ; Chauffage ; Transfert de chaleur ; Transfert de masse ; Analyse
numerique

* Corresponding author. College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China. Tel.: 86 731 88825398; fax: 86 731
88821005.
E-mail address: gqzhang@188.com (G. Zhang).
0140-7007/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2011.10.016

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

us

Nomenclature
A
Patm
a
cp
cda
cv
cp,a
ma
mda
mw
mw,i
mw,o
hc
hm
i
isv(Tw)
L
H
Z
Q
T
Ta
Ta,i
Ta,o
Twb,i
Tw
Tw,i
Tw,o
ua

1.

area (m )
atmospheric pressure (kPa)
surface area per unit volume (m1)
specific heat at constant pressure (J kg1 K1)
specific heat of dry air (J kg1 K1)
specific heat of water vapor (J kg1 K1)
specific heat of moist air (J kg1 K1)
mass flow rate of moist air (kg s1)
mass flow rate of dry air (kg s1)
mass flow rate of water (kg s1)
mass flow rate of inlet water (kg s1)
mass flow rate of outlet water (kg s1)
heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1)
mass transfer coefficient (kg m2 s1)
specific enthalpy (J kg1)
specific enthalpy of water vapor condensating to
the water (J kg1)
length (m)
width (m)
width (m)
heat absorption capacity (kW)
temperature ( C)
air temperature ( C)
air inlet temperature ( C)
air outlet temperature ( C)
wet bulb temperature of the inlet air ( C)
water temperature ( C)
water inlet temperature ( C)
water outlet temperature ( C)
humidity ratio of saturated moist air (kgw kg1
da )

Introduction

Mechanical draft cooling towers are generally employed in

large scale air-conditioning systems to release the heat
withdrawn from the building (Hajidavalloo et al., 2010; Jin
et al., 2007; Khan et al., 2003; Lemouari and Boumaza, 2010).
However, a mechanical draft cooling tower may also be
reversibly used as part of a heat pump system extracting free
heat from ambient air in cold seasons to generate hot water
for buildings (Deng et al., 1998). Recently, a number of new
desuperheater heat recovery systems that include a Reversibly Used Cooling Tower (RUCT) have been installed in Mainland China, and have been operating satisfactorily for several
years (Song et al., 2011; Wu et al., 2011a; Zhang et al., 2010).
The heat and mass transfer characteristics of a standard
water cooling tower have been well understood and documented when it is normally used to dissipate heat to the
atmosphere (Al-Waked and Behnia, 2006; Heidarinejad et al.,
2009; Klimanek and Bialecki, 2009; Milosavljevic and
Heikkila, 2001; Ren, 2008). However, when it is operated in
a reverse mode to extract heat from the ambient air as part of
a heat pump system for hot water supply, its operational
characteristics are expected to be significantly different from
that of a standard water cooling tower, and should be

ua,i
ua,o
r0
rw(Tw)
r
R2
RMSE
ANN
Le

425

humidity ratio of saturated moist air at water

temperature (kgw kg1
da )
air inlet humidity ratio (kgw kg1
da )
air outlet humidity ratio (kgw kg1
da )
latent heat of condensation of water at 0  C (J kg1)
latent heat of condensation of water at water
temperature (J kg1)
correlation coefficient (dimensionless)
absolute fraction of variance (dimensionless)
root mean square error
Artificial Neural Network
Lewis number

Greek symbols
u
humidity ratio (kgw kg1
da )
h
heating efficiency (dimensionless)
Subscripts
a
moist air
da
dry air
db
dry-bulb
wb
wet-bulb
s
saturation
c
convective
i
inlet
o
outlet
v
water vapor
sv
saturated water vapor
w
water
Superscripts
i
the ith control unit
j
the jth control unit

investigated (Tan and Deng, 2002; Wen et al., 2011). These

differences include reduced latent heat exchange and
increased chilled water flow rate when chilled water exits
from a RUCT. Previous related work included carrying out an
extensive literature review on applying desuperheater to
recover heat for hot water supply (Tan, 2000) and for developing an analytical method for evaluating the heat and mass
transfer characteristics in a RUCT (Tan and Deng, 2002).
Furthermore, field experimental results from a RUCT installed
in a sub-tropical region in China indicated that the developed
method could be used to evaluate the thermal performance of
the RUCT with an acceptable error. However, this method
cannot be used to determine the air and water states at any
intermediate horizontal sections along the vertical length of
the RUCT. Tan and Deng (2003) presented a numerical analysis
by which the air and water states at any horizontal sections
along the tower height may be determined. The numerical
analysis is based on the heat and mass exchange within the
tower, which was also partially validated by the on-site
experimental data. However, they did not consider the effect
of Lewis number, and the results are only applicable to Lewis
number equal to one. Wu et al. (2011b) presented an Artificial
Neural Network (ANN) model that can be used effectively to
predict the performance characteristics of the RUCT under

426

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

cross flow conditions, providing a theoretical basis on the

research of heat and mass transfer inside RUCT. To understand the heating process and the related heat and mass
exchanges for accessing optimal operating conditions, it is
necessary to develop a realistic model for predicting the
thermal behavior of the counterflow RUCT.
The objective of this paper is to develop a model for analysis of the combined heat and mass transfers in a counterflow
RUCT. In this model, the effects of Lewis number, the airewater interface temperature, the variation of water mass flow
rate, and the effect of water vapor condensation on the air
process states, and along the vertical length of the RUCT are
considered together. Furthermore, a comparison of analytical
and numerical results will be provided, which reveals good
agreements with experimental data reported by Tan and Deng
(2002). The proposed model will also be used to analyze the
distribution of the water and air temperatures inside the
RUCT as well as the air humidity and to predict the quantity of
the water gain during the condensation phase. Finally, the
thermal behavior of the RUCT under various operating and
environmental conditions is also studied.

2.2.
Governing equations of heat and mass transfer in
the RUCT

2.
Mathematical model and solution of
counterflow heat and mass transfer process

The driving potential for mass transfer is the humidity ratio

difference between the saturated air at the airewater interface and the moist air, thus dmw can be written as

In a counterflow RUCT, inside of the tower is packed with

packing material providing a large surface area for heat and
mass transfer from air to water droplets, as shown in Fig. 1,
the chilled water to be heated is sprayed into an upward
flowing air stream using a number of nozzles. The nozzles are
arranged in such a way that the water is uniformly distributed
over the fill material. Due to heat and mass transfer, the
temperature of water is increased while the air enthalpy
decreases because the air is cooled and dehumidified by the
water as it flows up.

2.1.

Assumptions

The theoretical model of the RUCT is based on the following

assumptions and simplifications:

1. The thermal effects of the RUCT packing material are

negligible.
2. Both air and water inlet flow rates are steady and uniform.
3. Both the air and chilled water have constant physical
properties.
4. The interface of contact between the water and air is
considerable.
5. No thermal losses from all sides of the RUCT.
6. Temperature has no influence on the transfer coefficients.
7. Thermal dispersion effects are negligible in both air and
chilled water domains.
8. Operating parameters of the RUCT are varying only in the
vertical direction.
9. The variation of water mass flow due to condensation
cannot be neglected.
10. The interface temperature between water film and air is
assumed to be equal to the water film temperature.

dmw hm ua  us dA

(1)

where us is the humidity of air at the water temperature, ua is

the air humidity in the bulk air flow and hm is mass transfer
coefficient.
On the other hand, the quantity of water vapor condensated is equal to the air flow multiplied by the air humidity
variation. The air side water-vapor mass balance can be
written as (Stabat and Marchio, 2004)
mda dua hm ua  us dA

(2)

At steady-state conditions, the energy balance between air

and water, including condensation, is given by the following
relation




mda cda Ta;i mda ua;i cv Ta;i r0  mda cda Ta;o mda ua;o cv Ta;o r0 


mda dua cv Tw;i r0 hc Ta  Tw dA
(3)
Then, equation (3) can be reduced as


cda mda Ta;i cv mda ua;i Ta;i  cda mda Ta;o cv mda ua;o Ta;o
cv mda dua Tw;i hc Ta  Tw dA

(4)

The energy transferred from the air to water due to condensation of mass and heat convection is balanced with the
increase of the enthalpy of the water
cw mw;o Tw;o  cw mw;i Tw;i hc Ta  Tw dA dmw isv Tw

(5)

dQ hc Ta  Tw dA dmw hsv Tw

(6)

where isv(Tw) is the enthalpy of water vapor condensating to

the water. This quantity is evaluated at the bulk water
temperature Tw and can be expressed as
Fig. 1 e Schematic of heat and mass transfer in counterflow
RUCT.

isv Tw cw Tw rw Tw

(7)

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

Substituting equation (7) into energy balance equation (5)

produces


cw mw;i Tw;o  Tw;i cw Tw;o  Tw dmw
hc Ta  Tw dA rw Tw dmw

(8)

where h is the enthalpy of saturated water vapor evaluated

at Tw, k is a coefficient determined by Tw,o and is resulted from
water vapor condensated from the tower which can also get
a portion of heat. The expression of k for the whole tower is
given by Shi (1990)

By substituting Tw,i for Tw into equation (8), we can obtain

k1





cw mw;i Tw;o  Tw;i cw Tw;o  Tw;i dmw
hc Ta  Tw dA rw Tw dmw

dmw dTw is infinitesimal of higher order, which is negligible.

Equation (10) is then modified to
(11)

The water and air energy balance in terms of the heat and
mass transfer coefficients is given by equation (11).
The equations (1), (2), (4) and (11) are the basic heat and
mass transfer equations between water and air in a counterflow RUCT. The heat transfer coefficient hc and mass transfer
coefficient hm reflect the intensity of the thermal-hydraulic
process within the RUCT, which can be calculated as follows
(Wang et al., 2010)
hc



cp;a ,ma , Ta;i  Ta;o
Ta;av  Tw;av ,A

(12)



Ta;av Ta;i Ta;o 2

(13)



Tw;av Tw;i Tw;o 2

(14)

cp;a 1:005 1:842,ua

(15)

where ua is the moisture content of inlet air stream determined by air inlet dry and wet bulb temperature.

hm

mw
k,V

ZTw;i
Tw;o

cw
dT
h00  h

cp;w ,Tw;o
586  0:56Tw;o  20

(17)

(9)

By substituting dTw Tw;o  Tw;i into equation (9), we can obtain



cw mw;i Tw;o  Tw;i cw dmw dTw hc Ta  Tw dA rw Tw dmw (10)



cw mw;i Tw;o  Tw;i hc Ta  Tw dA rw Tw dmw

427

2.3.

Numerical method

To depict air and water temperature profiles, moisture

content of air and the water mass flow rate change within the
RUCT, as shown in Fig. 2, we divided the whole process into
finite sections, each with an area of dA. Section m is filled with
water which enters the section at the temperature of Tiw and
exit at Ti1
w . Section n is filled with water at the inlet temperature of Tjw and outlet temperature of Tj1
w , which has no
influence on computational results as operating parameters of
the counterflow RUCT vary only in the vertical direction. In
each stage, an iterative computation is developed in each
differential section according to the initial conditions. The
governing equations could be cast in the form of differential
equations and solved by a finite difference method (Hao et al.,
2003; Qi et al., 2007). In each differential section, the outlet
parameter can be obtained according to the inlet parameter.
After solving all steps, we can get the condition parameter of
the water and air in each position. Only if the step length is
short enough and in the vertical direction, the method is
dependable. In each step, the foregoing equations can be
discretized and solved using the finite difference method.
Eventually, water temperature, water mass flow rate and
moisture content for the air at each spot within the counterflow RUCT can be obtained.
The conservation equations are accompanied with two
relationships describing the kinetics of condensation through
the airewater interface of the water film. The area of the
interface is

(16)
dA Ai;j

L H

n m

(18)

The equations (1)e(2), (4) and (11) can be reformulated as

Fig. 2 e Directions of water and air flows, divided segment

of padding.

 i;j
 i;j
i;j
 mi;j
mi1;j
w
w hm ua  us A

(19)



 i;j
 i;j
i;j
 ui;j
mda ui1;j
a
a hm ua  us A

(20)


 

i;j i;j
cda mda Ti1;j
cv mda ui1;j
Ti1;j
 cda mda Ti;j
a
a
a
a cv mda ua Ta



 i;j
i;j
i;j
i;j
 ui;j
cv mda ui1;j
a
a Tw hc Ta  Tw A

(21)





 i1;j

i1;j
i;j
i;j
i;j
i;j
 Ti;j
 mi;j
cw mi;j
w Tw
w hc Ta  Tw A rw mw
w

(22)

The number of model equations above (equations (19)e(22))

is four, but the number of variables is six, and because the
humidity ratio of saturated moist air at water temperature us
and latent heat of condensation of water at water temperature
rw are the function of Tw (Hao et al., 2003), the function relation
to us, rw and Tw must be obtained by simulation. It is known
that humidity ratio of saturated moist air and latent heat of

428

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

evaporation of water at water temperature are related to

temperature as well as pressure, leading to difficulty in three
dimensions regression. However, generally pressure of the
tower is 101.325 kPa, which makes the usage of two dimensions regress feasible. Two regression equations related to us,
rw and Tw, obtained by Matlab software at the pressure of
101.325 kPa and the water temperature between 0  C and 60  C,
are as follows
h
 4
 3
 2
i;j
0:7461 Ti;j
33:6887 Ti;j
50:0495 Ti;j
ui;j
s 0:0144 Tw
w
w
w
i
3
4266:8615  10
23
i
h
 
i;j
3
ri;j
w  2:377 Tw 2500:6737  10

(24)

The accuracy of the results obtained from regression

formulas is evaluated through comparison between the
calculated values and the standard values in ASHRAE
Handbook (2009a, 2009b). Therein, the results of us obtained
from equation (23) yield a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9999,
an absolute fraction of variance (R2) of 0.9999 and a Root Mean
Square Error (RMSE) of 0.23 g kg1 with the standard values
(ASHRAE Handbook, 2009a). And an r of 0.9999, a R2 of 0.9999
and an RMSE of 0.34 kJ kg1 are revealed between rw obtained
from equation (24) and the standard values (ASHRAE
Handbook, 2009b).
Combining equations (19)e(24) gives
 i;j
 i;j
i;j
mi;j
mi1;j
w
w hm ua  us A
ui1;j
a

(25)

 i;j
hm  i;j
ui;j
u  ui;j
a
s A
mda a

(26)







i;j
i;j
i1;j
i;j
i;j
i;j
i;j
cda cv ua mda Ta cv mda ua  ua Tw hc Ta  Tw Ai;j


Ti1;j

a
i1;j
cda cv ua
mda
(27)
Ti1;j
Ti;j
w
w





i;j
i;j
i;j
i1;j
i;j
hc Ta  Tw Ai;j rw mw  mw
i;j

cw mw

(28)

Equations (25)e(28) are iteratively solved from top to bottom of

the counterflow RUCT.

3.

Model validation

To validate the proposed model, the outputs of the improved

model are compared with model provided by Tan and Deng
(2002). The experimental parameters of the RUCT are given
as follows:
Table 1 lists the calculated value of water outlet temperab
c
) by Tan and (Tw,o
) by improved model at various
tures (Tw,o
chilled water flow rates under five different inlet air temperatures. Furthermore, Table 1 also lists the measured water
a
) from the field experimental work on
outlet temperatures (Tw,o
the RUCT by Tan and Deng (2002). Results of Lewis number
Le hc =hm ,cda are also presented in Table 1, in order to
demonstrate the improvement of accuracy with the analytical

Table 1 e Comparison of the measured and calculated

results obtained with method by Tan and Deng (2002) and
presented approach.
La

Ga Tdba Twba Tw,ia Ta,oa Tw,oa Tw,ob Db Tw,oc Dc Lec

kg/s kg/s
1.48
1.48
1.48
1.48
1.48
2.22
2.22
2.22
2.22
2.22
2.96
2.96
2.96
2.96
2.96
3.70
3.70
3.70
3.70
3.70
4.44
4.44
4.44
4.44
4.44

9.2
9.2
9.7
9.9
10.2
9.0
9.0
9.3
9.5
9.9
8.7
8.8
9.0
9.0
9.3
8.5
8.3
8.4
8.5
9.0
8.5
8.0
7.9
8.1
8.6

11.8
15.2
17.5
21.7
25.5
11.8
15.2
17.5
21.7
25.5
11.8
15.2
17.5
21.7
25.5
11.8
15.2
17.5
21.7
25.5
11.8
15.2
17.5
21.7
25.5

10.7
13.5
16.6
20.7
23.5
10.7
13.5
16.6
20.7
23.5
10.7
13.5
16.6
20.7
23.5
10.7
13.5
16.6
20.7
23.5
10.7
13.5
16.6
20.7
23.5

7.3
7.5
7.6
7.6
7.2
7.5
7.8
7.9
8.3
7.8
7.6
8.0
8.1
9.4
8.9
7.8
8.5
8.7
11.1
10.2
8.2
8.9
9.8
12.0
12.2

9.8
11.8
14.8
18.4
20.4
9.5
11.4
14.1
17.5
19.7
9.2
11.0
13.8
16.8
18.6
9.0
10.9
12.8
16.1
17.8
9.0
10.5
13.0
15.6
17.6

8.7
10.0
12.5
17.6
18.3
8.6
9.8
12.4
17.0
17.9
8.4
9.7
12.4
16.4
17.5
8.5
9.5
12.9
16.5
17.6
8.8
9.6
13.0
16.8
17.8

8.93
10.58
12.93
16.02
18.37
8.86
10.38
12.47
15.51
17.54
8.80
10.29
12.18
15.55
17.37
8.84
10.45
12.26
16.16
17.63
9.05
10.60
12.74
16.40
18.39

0.23
0.58
0.43
1.58
0.07
0.26
0.58
0.07
1.49
0.36
0.4
0.59
0.22
0.85
0.13
0.34
0.95
0.64
0.34
0.03
0.25
1.00
0.26
0.40
0.59

8.98
10.78
12.88
15.63
18.36
8.70
10.60
12.74
15.64
17.47
8.50
10.33
12.42
15.94
17.84
8.47
10.17
13.09
16.90
18.43
9.21
10.29
13.27
17.28
18.13

0.28
0.78
0.38
1.97
0.06
0.10
0.80
0.34
1.36
0.43
0.10
0.63
0.02
0.46
0.34
0.03
0.67
0.19
0.40
0.83
0.41
0.69
0.27
0.48
0.33

0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.91
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.91
0.91
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90

a The experimental values by Tan and Deng (2002).

b The calculated values by Tan for the RUCT water outlet
temperature.
c The calculated values by improved model for the RUCT water
outlet temperature.

procedure presented in this paper implemented. The results

reveal that Lewis number varies from 0.90 to 0.91.
The accuracy of the model was evaluated based on the
regression analysis between the calculated values and the
experimental values. Figs. 3 and 4 present the comparison
between the experimental values and calculated values by
two models respectively. In order to depict the accuracy of the
models, Figs. 3 and 4 are provided with a straight line indicating perfect prediction and a 5% error band. As shown in
Fig. 3, the calculated water outlet temperatures by Tan yield
an r of 0.9885, a R2 of 0.9772, and an RMSE of 0.53  C with the
experimental data. Comparison of the RUCT water outlet
temperatures by proposed model with experimental data is
showed in Fig. 4. For this parameter, the improved model
yields an r of 0.9862, a R2 of 0.9726 and an RMSE of 0.60  C with
the experimental data. According to the Figs. 3 and 4, the
results of two models are almost the same.
However, the accuracy of current model is slightly lower
than that of the model proposed by Tan and Deng (2003). In
order to simplify the calculation of the current model, it
assumes that water side heat transfer resistance in the RUCT
can be neglected and the watereair interface temperature is
approximately equal to water temperature. Therefore, the
enthalpy of saturated air at interface is evaluated at water
temperature. However, in the model proposed by Tan and

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

429

of specific heats and saturation pressure. However, presented

validation of heat and mass transfer model conducted on the
entire counterflow RUCT analysis show good agreement
between data obtained with the model proposed by Tan and
Deng (2003) and the proposed approach. This confirms that
the proposed approach is properly implemented and equivalent to the Tan and Deng (2003) analysis and can also predict
the performance of the RUCT very well.
In summary, the advantages of the proposed model are
simple, flexible, relative accurate, and easy for engineering
applications.

Fig. 3 e The calculated values by Tan for the RUCT water

outlet temperature vs. the experimental values.

Deng (2003), the water side heat transfer resistance is significant and cannot be neglected. The hypothesis is proposed that
the interface temperature is an algebraic average of the bulk
air temperature and the bulk water temperature. The slight
discrepancy should be due to the application of different
integration techniques, the governing differential equations
of the counterflow RUCT are discretized by finite difference
method in this research. Another source of discrepancy may
be different functions representing temperature dependence

4.

Results and discussion

4.1.
RUCT

Performance characteristics of the counterflow

Heat absorption capacity and heating efficiency of the RUCT

are adopted to describe the heat and mass transfer performance (Wu et al., 2011b). In a counterflow RUCT analysis, the
heat transfer
by Merkel approach is
 rate obtained

(29)
Q mw cp;w Tw;o  Tw;i
where the effect of the change in chilled water mass flow rate
is not considered in the energy balance. If the air is supersaturated inside the counterflow RUCT, then the mass flow
rate of the condensated water could be determined by the
following equation


mv mda ua;i  ua;o

(30)

where ua,i and ua,o represent the specific humidity of air at the
entry and the exit of the RUCT.
However, another equation for the heat absorption
capacity, according to the Merkel approach, in which the
water gain, due to condensation, is considered in the energy
equation


Q mw cp;w Tw;o  Tw;i mv cpw Tw;o

(31)

The heating efficiency (h) of the counterflow RUCT, is the ratio

of the actual water temperature variance of the water passing
through the counterflow RUCT to its variation under ideal
conditions, which is
h

Tw;o  Tw;i
Twb;i  Tw;i

(32)

where Tw,i and Tw,o are the inlet and outlet water temperature
respectively, Twb,i is the wet bulb temperature of the inlet air
stream, which is also the heating limit of circulating water.

4.2.
RUCT

Fig. 4 e The improved model calculated values for the

RUCT water outlet temperature vs. the experimental
values.

Detailed numerical analysis within the counterflow

The proposed analytical model can be used to determine the

water and air states at any intermediate horizontal sections
along the tower height within the counterflow RUCT.
The boundary conditions at the bottom of the RUCT (Z H )
are the air inlet temperature (Ta,i 17.5  C), inlet humidity
ratio (ua,i 11.4 gw kg1
da ) and the air inlet mass flow rate
(ma,i 9.0 kg s1) (Tan and Deng, 2003). The boundary

430

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

Fig. 5 e Air and water temperature distributions in the fill.

Fig. 7 e Water mass flow rate distribution in the fill.

conditions at the top of the RUCT (Z 0) are the inlet water

temperature (Tw,i 8.1  C), and the water inlet mass flow rate
(mw,i 2.96 kg s1) (Tan and Deng, 2003). The RUCT volume can
be divided randomly. 10 to 20 sections will suffice for the
required accuracy of the calculation results (Ismail and
Mahmoud, 1994; Tan and Deng, 2003). In this study, the
RUCT fill height was equally divided into 10 portions. The
results of the analysis are graphically plotted versus the RUCT
height and shown in Figs. 5e7.
As can be seen from Fig. 5, the temperature of air flowing
upwards steadily decreases to the top, and the temperature of
water increases continuously as it flows downwards to the
bottom so that the heating process continues. Fig. 6 shows the
humidity ratio distributions. The humidity ratio of air flowing
upwards also steadily decreases to the top. The distribution of
the mass flow rate of the water is plotted in Fig. 7, which
increases from the top of the fill to bottom. Since the water
vapor partial pressure at the interface between the air and the
water is lower than the water vapor partial pressure in the air,
there is a transfer of water vapor into the water. This mass
transfer brings a heat transfer related to the condensation,

which is called transfer of latent heat. At the same time,

because of the difference in temperature between surface of
the water and the air, there is transfer of heat by convection.

Fig. 6 e Distribution of air humidity ratio in the fill.

4.3.

Effect of inlet parameters on the performance

The proposed analytical model of the heat and mass transfer

process in the RUCT was verified by applying the experimental
data of Tan (Tan, 2000; Tan and Deng, 2002). The comparison
of the results obtained by proposed method and by Tan
showed very good agreement in the validation computations.
Therefore, the proposed model can be used to predict the
properties of the water outlet temperature, water mass flow
rate change and heating efficiency of the counterflow RUCT
for given design and operating conditions.
The performance of a counterflow RUCT will change with
environmental conditions, which will affect the water outlet
temperature. Investigation of the thermal behavior of the
RUCT at different environmental conditions allows the
prediction of its performance at different atmospheric
conditions. Fig. 8 shows the effect of the air inlet wet bulb

Fig. 8 e Effect of air inlet wet bulb temperature on water

outlet temperature at different watereair flow rate ratios.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

Fig. 9 e Effect of air inlet wet bulb temperature on heating

efficiency at different watereair flow rate ratios.

temperature on water outlet temperature at different watereair flow rate ratios. Fig. 9 is a plot between heating efficiency
(h) and air inlet wet bulb temperature, for different values of
the mass flow rate ratio (mw/ma). Fig. 10 shows the effect of the
air inlet wet bulb temperature on water mass flow rate at
different watereair flow rate ratios. These plots are generated
based on the following input data: Patm 101.325 kPa;
Tw,i 7  C; Ta,i 20  C; ma 8 kg s1.
As shown in Fig. 8, when the air inlet wet bulb temperature
is 10  C and mw/ma 1.5, the RUCT can supply water at
a temperature of 7.73  C. With an increase of 10  C in the air
inlet wet bulb temperature (20  C), the temperature of
the water from the tower increases to 9.70  C. However, for
mw/ma 0.5, when the air inlet wet bulb temperature is 10  C,
the supply water temperature is 8.92  C, then with an increase
of 10  C in the air inlet wet bulb temperature (20  C), the water
outlet temperature increases to 13.92  C. It is obvious that the
water outlet temperature increases as the air inlet wet bulb
temperature increases at different watereair flow rate ratios.
Futhermore, Fig. 8 implies that the changes in watereair flow

Fig. 10 e Effect of air inlet wet bulb temperature on water

mass flow rate at different watereair flow rate ratios.

431

rate ratio has relatively more effect on water outlet temperature compared to changes in the air inlet wet bulb temperature for the same RUCT.
The variation of heating efficiency of the RUCT is shown in
Fig. 9 for the above input simulated data. This figure shows
that when the watereair flow rate ratio reduces from 1.5 to 0.5,
the heating efficiency of the RUCT increases obviously.
However when the watereair flow rate ratio remains
unchanged, the variations of the air inlet wet bulb temperature have little influence on the value of heating efficiency. On
the other hand, in contrast to the water outlet temperature as
shown in Fig. 8, the changes in watereair flow rate ratio also
have relatively more effect on heating efficiency compared to
changes in the air inlet wet bulb temperature for the same
RUCT.
Fig. 10 offers the opportunity to understand the change of
inlet and outlet of water mass flow rate. At the air inlet of the
RUCT, the incoming moist air meets chilled water from
evaporator. Depending on the dew point temperature of the
entering moist air, it may experience two different processes
in the RUCT (Aya and Nariai, 1991; Celata et al., 1991; Ibrahim
et al., 1995; Lekic and Ford, 1980; Li et al., 2006; Shah et al.,
2010; Song et al., 2009). Basically, the heat and mass transfer
between the moist air and the chilled water in an RUCT
depends on the temperature difference of the two fluids and
the vapor partial pressure difference between the water
surface and the moist air.
As shown in Fig. 10, the RUCT inlet water temperature
remains constant (7  C) and the air inlet dry-bulb temperature
remains constant (20  C), the values of the air inlet wet bulb
temperature vary from 20 to 10  C. Fig. 10 shows that when
mw/ma 0.5 and mw/ma 1.5, the increase in the quantity of
condensed water are 0.027 and 0.032 kg s1, respectively, given
the air inlet wet bulb temperature is 20  C. The quantity of
condensed water increases as the mass flow rate ratio
increases.
As the air inlet wet bulb temperature decrease, the reduction in condensed water quantity is close to zero. This is
reasonable because the temperature of inlet water is close to
dew point temperature of the entering moist air. As the wet

Fig. 11 e Effect of watereair flow rate ratio on heat

absorption capacity at different water inlet temperature.

432

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

Fig. 12 e Effect of watereair flow rate ratio on heating

efficiency at different water inlet temperature.

bulb temperature of inlet air continually decreases, the water

loss continues due to water evaporation. As explained above,
the water vapor condensation in the RUCT occurs when the
inlet water temperature is lower than the air dew point
temperature; otherwise, the evaporation of water occurs.
The heat absorption capacity of the counterflow RUCT
versus watereair flow rate ratios at different water inlet
temperatures is shown in Fig. 11. These plots are generated
based on the following data: Patm 101.325 kPa; Ta,i 20  C;
Twb,i 18  C; ma 8 kg s1. In this case, it demonstrates that
when the watereair flow rate ratio is 0.5, the heat absorption
accomplished by the RUCT is 127.36 kW at a water inlet
temperature of 3  C, and the heat absorption is 54.60 kW for
a water inlet temperature of 12  C at the same watereair flow
rate ratio. In conclusion, the rate of heat absorption capacity
continues to decrease at higher water inlet temperatures. In
other words, when the inlet chilled water has a low temperature and relative high watereair flow rate ratio, the RUCT can
absorb more heat from the air.
Fig. 12 shows the performance of RUCT in terms of heat
absorption efficiency and watereair flow rate ratios at
different water inlet temperatures. The input data used in this
figure is the same as that in Fig. 11. A high degree of the RUCT
effectiveness corresponds to a better heating performance
and higher heat absorption. It can be seen in Fig. 12 that when
the inlet chilled water has a low temperature and high
watereair flow rate ratio, the value of heating efficiency
decreases rapidly.

5.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of this work the following conclusions

can be drawn:
1. A more realistic detail mathematical model based on heat
and mass transfer characteristics is found to be practically
applicable to a reversibly used mechanical draft cooling
tower under counterflow conditions for the steady-state
operation. In this model, we have considered the effects

of the airewater interface temperature, the water vapor

condensation, the variation of water mass flow rate along
the vertical length of the RUCT and the non-unity of the
Lewis number.
2. The proposed heat and mass transfer model of RUCT was
validated with the experimental data reported by Tan and
Deng (2002). Furthermore, the comparison between the
results by the proposed model and by Tan showed very good
agreement in the validation computations. Furthermore, the
model also accommodates the direct and quick calculation of
air and water temperature profiles, moisture content of air
and the water mass flow rate change along the vertical length
of the RUCT. It can be concluded that the model developed in
this work can provide a theoretical foundation for practical
design and performance evaluation of counterflow RUCT.
3. When the temperatures of the entering chilled water and
the air dry-bulb are constant, the water outlet temperature
and heating efficiency of the RUCT are mainly controlled by
the mass rate ratio of water and air along with the air inlet
wet bulb temperature. The changes in watereair flow rate
ratio has relatively significant effect on water outlet
temperature and heating efficiency compared to changes in
the air inlet wet bulb temperature. When the temperatures
of the entering air dry-bulb and wet bulb are constant, the
heat absorption capacity and heating efficiency of the RUCT
are mainly controlled by the temperature of the entering
chilled water and the watereair flow rate ratio. With low
temperature inlet water and relative high watereair flow
rate ratio, the RUCT can absorb more heat from the air,
while the heating efficiency decreases.

Acknowledgements
The research reported herein has been carried out with the
help of the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China
during the 11th Five-year Plan Period (No. 2006BAJ04A13) and
Research
Project
from
Guangdong
Province
(No.
2010B090400301). Besides, we are grateful to Prof. Deng
Shiming and Dr. Tan Kunxiong of Hong Kong Polytechnic
University for their helpful experimental results and suggestions in the mathematical model elaboration, and Dr. Ding Jie
of Texas Tech University for his advice on language expression. These supports are gratefully acknowledged.

references

ASHRAE, 2009a. ASHRAE Handbook e Fundamentals. American

Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Atlanta (chapter 1), pp. 1.3e1.4.
ASHRAE, 2009b. ASHRAE Handbook e Fundamentals. American
Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Atlanta (chapter 1), pp. 1.5e1.6.
Al-Waked, R., Behnia, M., 2006. CFD simulation of wet cooling
towers. Appl. Therm. Eng. 26, 382e395.
Aya, L., Nariai, H., 1991. Evaluation of heat-transfer coefficient at
direct-contact condensation of cold water and steam. Nucl.
Eng. Des 131, 17e24.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 5 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 4 e4 3 3

Celata, G.P., Cumo, M., DAnnibale, F., Farello, G.E., 1991. Direct
contact condensation of steam on droplets. Int. J. Multiphase
Flow 17, 191e211.
Deng, S., Song, Z., Tan, K., 1998. Air-cooled heat pump with
desuperheater: retrofit for year-round service hot water
supply. Build. Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 19, 129e133.
Hajidavalloo, E., Shakeri, R., Mehrabian, M.A., 2010. Thermal
performance of cross flow cooling towers in variable wet bulb
temperature. Energy Convers. Manage. 51, 1298e1303.
Hao, L., Li, H., Sun, Z., Tong, L., 2003. Numerical simulation of aircooling tower. J. Therm. Sci. 12, 264e269.
Heidarinejad, G., Karami, M., Delfani, S., 2009. Numerical
simulation of counter-flow wet-cooling towers. Int. J.
Refrigeration 32, 996e1002.
Ibrahim, G.A., Nabhan, M.B.W., Anabtawi, M.Z., 1995. An
investigation into a falling film type cooling tower. Int. J.
Refrigeration 18, 557e564.
Ismail, I.M., Mahmoud, K.G., 1994. Comparative study of different
air-conditioning systems incorporating air washers. Int. J.
Refrigeration 17, 364e370.
Jin, G.-Y., Cai, W.-J., Lu, L., Lee, E.L., Chiang, A., 2007. A simplified
modeling of mechanical cooling tower for control and
optimization of HVAC systems. Energy Convers. Manage. 48,
355e365.
Khan, J.-U.-R., Yaqub, M., Zubair, S.M., 2003. Performance
characteristics of counter flow wet cooling towers. Energy
Convers. Manage. 44, 2073e2091.
Klimanek, A., Bialecki, R.A., 2009. Solution of heat and mass
transfer in counterflow wet-cooling tower fills. Int. Commun.
Heat Mass Transfer 36, 547e553.
Lekic, A., Ford, J.D., 1980. Direct contact condensation of vapor on
a spray of subcooled liquid droplets. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
23, 1531e1537.
Lemouari, M., Boumaza, M., 2010. Experimental investigation of
the performance characteristics of a counterflow wet cooling
tower. Int. J. Therm. Sci. 49, 2049e2056.
Li, Y., Klausner, J.F., Mei, R.W., Knight, J., 2006. Direct contact
condensation in packed beds. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 49,
4751e4761.
Milosavljevic, N., Heikkila, P., 2001. A comprehensive approach to
cooling tower design. Appl. Therm. Eng. 21, 899e915.
Qi, X., Liu, Z., Li, D., 2007. Performance characteristics of a shower
cooling tower. Energy Convers. Manage. 48, 193e203.
Ren, C.-Q., 2008. Corrections to the simple effectiveness-NTU
method for counterflow cooling towers and packed bed liquid
desiccant-air contact systems. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 51,
237e245.

433

Shah, A., Chughtai, I.R., Inayat, M.H., 2010. Numerical simulation

of direct-contact condensation from a Supersonic steam Jet in
subcooled water. Chin. J. Chem. Eng. 18, 577e587.
Shi, Y.J., 1990. Operation and Experiment of Cooling Tower. Water
Consevancy and Electric Power Press, Beijing.
Song, T.Y., Lan, Z., Ma, X.H., Bai, T., 2009. Molecular clustering
physical model of steam condensation and the experimental
study on the initial droplet size distribution. Int. J. Therm. Sci.
48, 2228e2236.
Song, Y., Ma, H., Long, W., 2011. Application ana analysis of
energy tower heat pump technology in air conditioning
engineering. HVAC 41, 20e23.
Stabat, P., Marchio, D., 2004. Simplified model for indirectcontact evaporative cooling-tower behavior. Appl. Energy 78,
433e451.
Tan, K., Deng, S., 2003. A numerical analysis of heat and mass
transfer inside a reversibly used water cooling tower. Build.
Environ. 38, 91e97.
Tan, K.X., 2000. A Study of a Desuperheater Heat Recovery System
Complete with a Reversibly Used Water Cooling Tower (RUWCT)
for Hot Water Supply. Dept. of Building Services Engineering. The
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
Tan, K.X., Deng, S.M., 2002. A method for evaluating the heat and
mass transfer characteristics in a reversibly used water
cooling tower (RUWCT) for heat recovery. Int. J. Refrigeration
25, 552e561.
Wang, K., Sun, F., Zhao, Y., Gao, M., Ruan, L., 2010. Experimental
research of the guiding channels effect on the thermal
performance of wet cooling towers subjected to crosswinds e Air
guiding effect on cooling tower. Appl. Therm. Eng. 30, 533e538.
Wen, X., Liang, C., Zhang, X., Zhang, Y., Zhou, X., 2011. Mass
transfer characteristics in heat-source tower. CIESC J. 62,
901e907.
Wu, J., Zhang, G., Zhang, Q., Zhou, J., Guo, Y., Shen, W., 2011a.
Experimental investigation of the performance of a reversibly
used cooling tower heating system using heat pump in winter.
In: 2011 Asia-Pacific Power and Energy Engineering
Conference, APPEEC 2011, March 25e28, 2011. IEEE Computer
Society, Wuhan, China, pp. 1e4.
Wu, J., Zhang, G., Zhang, Q., Zhou, J., Wang, Y., 2011b. Artificial
neural network analysis of the performance characteristics of
a reversibly used cooling tower under cross flow conditions for
heat pump heating system in winter. Energy Build 43,
1685e1693.
Zhang, C., Yang, H., Liu, Q., Wu, J., 2010. Application of an opentype heat-source tower in the heat pump system. Energy Res.
Inf. 26, 52e56.