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Thermal fill: Does Material Selection Affect Cooling Tower Performance?

Is cooling tower design affected by the type of fill material used? Testing shows how the materials used for
cooling tower components such as fill affect cooling performance.
Article written by: James Wallis and Rich Aull,
/processcoolingpc0114_brentwood_reprint_v4.pdf).

Brentwood

Industries,

download

the

original

article

here

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To help ensure optimum cooling performance, manufacturers of cooling tower components provide cooling tower designers with thermal fill design
data. This includes pressure in the form of KaV/L, where K is the mass transfer coefficient, a is the heat transfer area/unit volume, V is the active
volume/plan area and L is the mass water loading rate. The KaV/L figures are developed for each fill in a test cooling tower.
When using supplied KaV/L performance curves, it is important to understand that the test cooling tower is being used (figure 2). The best test cell for
providing data will minimize the spray and rain zones so that their contribution to cooling is minimized. This allows the cooling tower designer to
understand the real contribution of the thermal fill. As an example, for the total cooling in an actual cooling tower, the spray zone can contribute 10 to
20 percent; the rain zone 10 to 25 percent; and thermal fill 55 to 80 percent.
As noted, cooling tower fill manufacturers provides pressure have been provided as an important tool for new tower manufacturers or rebuilders
(companies upgrading existing cooling towers), allowing them to size systems based on the customer requirements and provide the heat rejection
needed.
System observations and tests have shown that the material of construction affects the pressure drop and KaV/L. The pressure drop and KaV/L values
reported are based on rigid PVC, meeting Cooling Technologies Institute Standard 136, polymer material standard. If another material is used, the
performance may vary.
In the past, our company did not provide de-rating factors for alternate materials because it was felt that over time, the materials would condition to
perform more closely to the most commonly used plastic fill material: rigid PVC.
This article will review test data that supports the need to de-rate thermal fills made of plastics that have low surface energy.

Testing Evaluates Low-Surface-Energy Polymers for Cooling Towers

A new cooling tower that has rigid PVC fill will require an average of 30 days of operation before the tower is at optimum performance. This is mainly
due to the fact that the thermal fill, which is responsible for up to 80 percent of the total cooling, needs time to condition (complete wetting of the fills
surfaces). The thermal fill may have surface processing agents or no surface oxidation, which will impede complete film formation. Our recommendation
to customers is to run the acceptance test for new or rebuilt cooling towers 30 to 60 days after the start of operation so the actual long-term tower
performance can be measured.
Some residual processing films can reduce the water-film formation on cooling tower fills. In addition, the use of alternate plastics can affect the thermal
fill performance through resistance to water film formation (figure 1).

The effect is referred to as nonwetting, and it is seen in plastics that have low surface energy. Table 1 provides comparisons of surface energy of
various materials. The group that indicates low-surfaceenergy polymers has such a low surface energy that water will bead, making good film formation
difficult. Tests were conducted comparing the KaV/L and pressure 2 shows the typical material characteristics of each plastic tested.
For the KaV/L test data provided to customers, the fills are conditioned as recommended to represent how the thermal fill will perform after startup

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conditioning. Likewise, for the evaluation low-surface-energy plastic, the fill were conditioned in a test cell so that they would have thermal performance
similar to an operating tower after 30 to 60 days of continuous operation. Each fill was the same design; the only difference was that one was made of
rigid PVC and one of polypropylene. After the first test, the conditioning period was extended to measure the thermal fills improved performance.
It was believed that cooling thermal fills made from a lowsurface-energy plastic such as polypropylene would develop surface oxidation and form mineral
deposits on the fill, which will aid in water film formation. Therefore, many designers did not change the thermal performance data relative to the type of
plastic being used. It also was identified that some KaV/L curves are being used with data that has been developed with a process of spray painting
with a flat (non-glossy) paint as substitute for recirculating water conditioning. This process would provide good data if the
final tested fill had a wetting characteristic similar to the actual field-conditioning process. Our test shows that flat painting of the fill surfaces will not
provide similar results; therefore, the KaV/L curves developed in this process should not be used for cooling tower design.
Tests were conducted by the Czech Technical University in Prague. The first step was conditioning of the fill in a special conditioning tank built for that
purpose. As shown in figure 2, all tests were conducted in a test cooling tower with a plan area of 3.94 by 3.94 feet (1.2 by 1.2 meters).

Test Results for Low-Surface-Energy Polymers

The first conditioned sample of rigid PVC and polypropylene fills represented conditioning of about 30 days of cooling tower operation. It showed that
the rigid PVC fill had close to a 7 percent higher thermal performance than the propylene film for lower water loadings (figures 3 and 4). This was seen in
the water streams over the polypropylene fill compared to the thin-water film over the surface of rigid PVC fill. This streaming or beading effect reduces
the surface area of water exposed to the airflow and also can increase pressure drop, both of which reduce thermal performance.
The tests were conducted at various water loadings. The tests noted the highest thermal performance loss for polypropylene fill was in lower water
loading of 2 to 3 gal/min/ft2 (5 to 7.5 m3/hr/m2). It has been observed that the filming effect is proportional to the water loading. Higher water loadings
overcome the resistance to wetting of low-surface-energy plastics.
The extended conditioning showed an improvement in thermal performance of both the rigid PVC and polypropylene fill; however, it was noted that the
improvement of the rigid PVC fill exceeded that of the polypropylene fill. Cooling tower recirculation provides for the conditioning of fills by:
Removing any possible film of processing agents.
Allowing for surface oxidation.
Providing a thin layer of mineral deposit.
These effects will be influenced by the mineral content of the recirculating water. Low mineral hardness in the cooling tower will extend the time required
to condition fill.
Figures 3 and 4 show a comparison of thermal performance of rigid PVC and polypropylene fill over time for two water loadings. The rigid PVC fill
provides higher thermal performance compared to polypropylene fill for both the lower and higher water loading. The most significant variation
is seen in the much higher thermal performance of rigid PVC fill compared to polypropylene fill for the lower water loadings.

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Consequences for Mechanical Draft and Natural Draft Cooling Towers

Mechanical draft counterflow towers typically have high water loading in the range of 4 to 8 gal/min/ft2 (10 to 20 m3/hr/m2). These towers will have a
smaller performance loss when using lowsurface-energy plastic. The highest performance loss is experienced for low-surface-energy plastic if used in
natural draft cooling towers which operate at low water loadings in the range of 2 to 3.5 gal/min/ft2 (5 to 8.75 m3/hr/m2). Natural draft cooling towers will
show the largest performance loss when using low-surface-energy plastic.
In conclusion, the thermal performance data (KaV/L) used for cooling tower design must take into consideration the plastic material used for the thermal
fill. This can be accomplished by presenting the data for each specific plastic material or by way of a de-rating factor for the specific low-surface-energy
plastic.
When using a low-surface-energy plastic such as polypropylene compared to rigid PVC, depending on the design conditions, you may need
to use more energy for the same heat rejection. Based on our tests, for a low-water-loading design, a loss of 4 to 9 percent on thermal performance
is expected with lowsurface-energy plastics. Mechanical draft towers designed to achieve low approach temperatures (the difference between the wet
bulb temperature and the cooling towers exit water temperature) typically will operate at low water loadings.
Also, it is typical for natural draft towers to be designed with low water loadings due to their low air-side pressure s. For existing systems, it can mean
as much as a 1F (0.5C) hotter cold water temperat ure. This increase in cold water temperature
will affect condenser operation in power production or other heat exchange functions in chemical, petrochemical, food processing or
general industrial operations and negatively affect productivity. Because natural draft towers are used on larger systems, the opportunity lost is
in the millions of euros.

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