Predicting the Thermal Performance of a Mechanical Draft Counter Flow Cooling Tower of Closed Type

Abstract

In this work, the enthalpy potential theory is used in conjunction with a formula derived by Uchida and a set of data available on the cooling tower of Baghdad international airport to predict the thermal performance of a mechanical draft counter flow cooling tower of closed type.Computer calculations are made to determine the number of transfer units, water-cooling range and tower capacity. The computer results are presented in graphical form as performance curves showing the predictable thermal performance of the tower under different conditions of air inlet wet bulb temperature and water-to-air flow ratio, when the load on the tower, denoted by the water inlet temperature, remains unchanged. The results indicated that the performance of the tower and hence its capacity are affected by the air inlet wet bulb temperature and the water-to-air flow ratio. They face a considerable decline with increase of air inlet wet bulb temperature and with increase of water-to-air flow ratio too. Then, the decline with increase of air inlet wet bulb temperature reduces with increase of water-to-air flow ratio. The agreement of the present results with results of the others and with measurement would give a sufficient support to the analysis adopted in this work.