3.

0 Result & Data

Table A

Air Flow
Description Unit
100% 75% 50% 25%
Packing density m-1 110 110 110 110
Air inlet dry bulb, T1 ˚C 26.65 26.55 26.8 27.2
Air inlet wet bulb, T2 ˚C 30.1 30.35 31.3 31.6
Air outlet wet bulb, T3 ˚C 29.8 29.2 29.95 30.9
Air outlet dry bulb, T4 ˚C 34.8 33.9 34.85 36.2
Water inlet temperature, T5 ˚C 28.15 27.4 28.1 29.4
Water outlet temperature, T6 ˚C 28.1 28.15 29.4 30.9
Orifice differential, DP1 Pa 89.2 68.8 43.45 22.3
Water flow rate, FT1 LPM 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Heater power, Q1 Watt 1000 1000 1000 1000
Pressure drop across packing, DP2 Pa 40 32 20 13.4

Table B

Air Flow 100% 75% 50% 25%

Nominal Velocity of Air, m/s 3.46×10-8 3.024×10-8 2.443×10-8 1.757×10-8
Wet Bulb Approach, K -2 -2.2 -1.9 -0.7
Packing Pressure Drops, mm
4.0 3.2 2.0 1.34
H2O
 Wet bulb approach and packing pressure
drops vs nominal velocity (m/s)
wet bulp approch(K) and packing pressure 50
40
30 y = -9.18x + 49.3
drops(mmH2O)

20
10 y = 0.42x - 2.75
0
-10 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Norminal velocity of air (m/s)

Wet Bulb Approach, K pressure

Linear (Wet Bulb Approach, K) Linear (pressure)

Figure 1 : Wet bulb approach and packing pressure drops vs nominal velocity
4.0 Analysis & Discussion
Cooling tower is a heat rejection device that is used to transfer process waste heat to
the atmosphere. Cooling tower able to lower the temperature of water more than the devices
which commonly use only air to reject heat such as radiator. In other word, cooling tower is
other kind of specialized heat exchanger in which air and water are brought into direct contact
with each other to reduce the water’s temperature. As this occurs, a small volume of water is
evaporated, reducing the temperature of the water circulated throughout the tower. However,
not all cooling tower are suitable for all applications. Cooling towers are designed and
manufactured in several types with numerous sizes. Basically, there are three types of cooling
tower which are natural draft, force draft and the induced draft. However, in this experiment,
force draft cooling tower was used as the main equipment. The cooling tower is known as the
force draft type because it applied fans to produce draft. The fundamental of the cooling tower
is quite simple where air was forced by the fan and flowed from the bottom to the top while the
hot water flowed in the opposite direction. The hot water, flow from the top of the cooling tower
and make a contact with the cold air forced upward by the fan resulting a cold temperature of
water collected in the water basin and flow out at the bottom of the machine. Additionally, there
are two types of flow that related to the cooling tower which are the cross flow and the counter
flow. The cross-flow condition happens when the water flows vertically through the fill while
the air flows horizontally across the falling water resulting the does not have to pass through
the distribution system, applying the gravity flow of hot water distributions basins mounted at
the top of the unit above the fill. Meanwhile, the counter flow condition happens when the air
flows vertically upward counter to the falling water in the fill (Hensley, J. C. (Ed.),1985). Due to
the vertically air flow, open, gravity flow basins which is typical in the cross-flow type cannot
be use.

Basically, this experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of air velocity on wet
bulb approach and pressure drop through the packing using the force draft type cooling tower
that apply cross flow method. The effect of air velocity on the parameter is based on four
different air flows which is 100%, 75%, 50% and 25%. In this experiment, there were 10 data
that were measured in this experiment which are air inlet dry bulb T1, air inlet wet bulb T2, air
outlet dry bulb T3, air outlet wet bulb T4, water inlet temperature T5, water outlet temperature
T6, orifice differential DP1, water flow rate FT1, heater power Q1 and lastly the pressure drops
across the packing DP2.
 From table A, as observed, it can be clearly seen that the value of T1, T2, T3, T5 & T6
is increasing as the percentage of the air flow is reduced. This is due to the reduced amount
of the air flow or the forced draft by the fan which cause the increase in the water temperature.
̊
For example, the differences can be seen for the 100% air flow, the wet bulb T1 is 26.65 C
̊ for the 25% air flow. However, there are some fluctuation pattern
while it increased to 27.2 C
on the result for the air outlet wet bulb T4 where for the 100% air flow, the value initially 34.8
˚C. At the 75% air flow, the value of the wet bulb air decreases a little into 33.9 ˚C and then
rise again for the 50% air flow into 34.85 ˚C. Meanwhile, for the packing density, water flow
rate and the heater power, there were no changes made throughout the experiment where the
value is kept constant until the end of the experiment. For the pressure drop across packing
DP2, the value is decreasing where the pressure is 40 pascals for 100% air flow and turn into
13.4 pascal for the 25% air flow. Hence, it can be deduced that the pressure drop across
packing is decrease as the air flow percentage decrease.

From figure 1 which is a graph that has been plotted to show a relationship between
wet bulb approach and packing pressure drop against nominal air velocity. Wet bulb approach
seems to decrease linearly from -0.7K to -2K as the nominal air increase whereby the packing
pressure drop increase linearly from 1.34mmH2O to 4.0mmH2O towards the nominal air
velocity. Based from the theory, the wet bulb approach line should be decreases and cross
the intersection line of the packing pressure drop that is in increasing. This crossing point
shows the limit of the wet bulb approach and packing pressure drop at the highest nominal air
velocity or at the 100% air flow.

The cooling tower selection and performances is based on the wet bulb approach. As
the nominal air velocity increased, the wet bulb approach will decrease. This is due to the
increment of the air velocity made by the fan or blower used in the experiment which cause
the dry air to hold more water vapour rather than it can hold at high temperature (Bedekar, S.
V., Nithiarasu, P., & Seetharamu, K. N.,1998). Meanwhile, the packing pressure drop increase
as the nominal air velocity rise. This can be justified by relating to the speed of the fan where
as the speed of the fan or the blower used is high, there will be more pressure drop occur to
reduce the temperature of the hot water. In order to ensure the air flow upward through the
column, a higher pressure at the bottom of the column is a necessity (Bernier M. A.,1994).
Meanwhile, the water flows downward throughout the packing which against the pressure and
the flowing air. This is due to the involvement of the gravity pull that makes water denser than
the air.
 While running the experiment, there are might be some error that occurred which affect
the result obtained when reading was taken. Firstly, it is important to make sure the
temperature is 50 ˚C to make it stable enough to get the expected result. A temperature that
lower than 50 ˚C could cause error in the temperature reading throughout the experiment.
Besides, it is essential to take a break about 10 minutes interval between each air flow
percentage reading as it helps the equipment to stabilized to its initial state. Lastly, the air flow
percentage blower must be adjusted perfectly. For 100%, it looks easy because the blower
cover just need to fully open but when it comes to 75%, 50% and 25%, it is very hard to
measure the value correctly. As a result, the temperature from T1 to T6 might be not accurate
as the air flow is not following the percentage it should be.