Abstract

Cooling tower experiment was conducted to determine the correlation of water to air mass flow
ratio with increasing water flow rates. The parameters that were varied for this experiment are
the flow rates of water and blowers. For the first experiment, the flow rates were varied at 1.0,
2.0 and 3.0 L/min while the blowers was fully closed. For the second experiment, the blowers
were set to be fully opened, semi-opened and closed while the water flow rates was kept constant
at 1.0 L/min. The heater power was kept constant at 0.5kW for both set of experiments. The unit
was run for 20 minutes for each different parameters before reading and recording the data at T1
to T6. The results for the first experiments shows that the heat load decreases when the water
flow rates increases. The heat load was calculated to be 0.450, 0.387 and 0.314kW at flow rates
of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 L/min respectively. The efficiency of the cooling tower was found to be
increases as the water flow rates decreases with the value of 90.0, 77.4 and 62.8%. For the
second experiment, for the fully opened blowers, the heat load is 0.441kW with the efficiency of
88.2%. For the semi-opened, the heat load is 0.364kW with the efficiency of 72.8%. For the fully
closed blowers, the heat load is 0.300kW with the efficiency of 60.0%. By referring to the
results calculated, the lower the water flow rate and the higher the air flow rates give higher
results of heat load thus increasing the efficiency to the cooling towers.

Result
WATER FLOW RATES
Column C, Area = 102.4 m2
Heater : 0.5 kW
Blower: Closed

Table 1.0: Data for varying water flow rates and its effect on the temperature.
Water flow rate (L/min)

3.0

2.0

1.0

Air inlet dry bulb, T1 (C)

34.7

34.8

33.6

Air inlet wet bulb, T2 (C)

33.0

33.1

33.2

Air outlet dry bulb, T3 (C)

40.5

44.1

42.5

Air outlet wet bulb, T4 (C)

37.1

42.3

41.9

Water inlet temperature, T5 (C)

51.9

53.5

53.3

Water outlet temperature, T6 (C)

49.8

50.7

47.9

Heater Power, W

426

428

430

Dp, orifice (Pa)

37

53

75

Dp, column (Pa)

30

45

66

Table 1.1: The effect of water flow rates to the efficiency of cooling tower.
Water flow

Cooling range

Heat load

Approach to

Overall heat transfer

Efficiency

rate (L/min)

(C)

(kW)

wet bulb

coefficient (kW/m2.C)

(%)

1.0

6.4

0.450

14.7

6.87 10-4

90.0

2.0

2.8

0.387

17.6

1.35 10-3

77.4

3.0

1.5

0.314

16.8

2.04 10-3

62.9

Figure 1.0: The effect of water flow rate to the efficiency of cooling tower.

Water flow rate vs Efficiency

100
90
80
70
60

Efficiency, %

50
40
30
20
10
0
0.5

1.5

2.5

Water flow rate, L/min

3.5

BLOWER
Column C, Area = 102.4 m2
Heater: 0.5 kW
Water flow rate: 1.0 L/min

Table 1.2: Data for open, semi-open and closed blower.

Blower

Open

Semi-open

Closed

Air inlet dry bulb, T1 (C)

31.0

29.9

31.4

Air inlet wet bulb, T2 (C)

26.4

28.9

29.0

Air outlet dry bulb, T3 (C)

28.1

30.1

31.8

Air outlet wet bulb, T4 (C)

29.4

27.2

31.3

Water inlet temperature, T5 (C)

33.1

35.3

37.4

Water outlet temperature, T6 (C)

26.8

30.1

33.1

Heater Power, W

434

435

429

Dp, orifice (Pa)

70

58

17

Dp, column (Pa)

66

60

10

Table 1.4: The effect by varying of blowers to the efficiency of cooling tower.
Cooling range

Heat load

Approach to

Overall heat transfer

Efficiency

(C)

(kW)

wet bulb

coefficient (kW/m2.C)

(%)

Opened

6.3

0.441

0.4

6.84 10-4

88.2

Semi-opened

5.2

0.364

1.2

6.83 10-4

72.8

Closed

4.3

0.300

4.1

6.81 10-4

60.0

Blower

Figure1.1: Effect of blowers condition against the efficiency of the cooling tower.

Blowers vs Efficiency of cooling tower

100
90

88.2

80

72.8

70

60

60

Efficiency.%

50
40
30
20
10
0

opened

semi-opened

Blower's condition

closed

Conclusion
The objectives of this experiment was to determine the correlation of water to air mass
flow ratio with increasing water flow rates. The experiments was divided into two parts. The
heater power was kept constant at 0.5kW for both set of experiments. The parameters that were
varied for this experiment are the flow rates of water and blowers. For the first experiment, the
flow rates were varied at 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 L/min while the blowers was fully closed. From the
first experiments, it was found that the value of heat load for water flow rates at 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0
L/min is 0.450, 0.387 and 0.314kW respectively. This results in higher efficiency for lower water
flow rates compared to that of higher flow rates with the value of 90.0, 77.4 and 62.8%
respectively. This is due to the longer contact time of the hot water with the air in the pack
column so it can transfer more heat to the surrounding in the pack column and thus increasing
the efficiency of the cooling tower.
For the second experiment, the blowers were set to be fully opened, semi-opened and
closed while the water flow rates was kept constant at 1.0 L/min. From the experiments, for the
fully opened blowers, the heat load calculated is 0.441kW with the efficiency of 88.2%. For the
semi-opened, the heat load is 0.364kW with the efficiency of 72.8%. For the fully closed
blowers, the heat load is 0.300kW with the efficiency of 60.0%. From this results, it can be
concluded that as the flow rates of air decreases given by the blowers, the heat load decreases
and thus decreases the efficiency of the cooling tower. In conclusion, we can said that this
experiment was successfully conducted because the objective of the experiment had achieved.