COMPARATIVE STUDY OF

THE PACKING DESIGN FOR A

COOLING TOWER
JOHNATHAN ORTEGA M.
DANIELA JURADO B.
JUAN CAMILO HENAO D.
MILLER A. PUENTES L.
INTRODUCTION
Currently the mass transfer operations are of great importance and use in the chemical engineering
field. One of the biggest operations based on the heat and mass transfer are humidification operations.
These operations consist in put in contact a gas flow with a pure liquid in which is completely
immiscible, in order to achieve the liquid evaporation into the gas and thus increase the concentration
of steam in this gas stream. One of the largest applications of this operation is the cooling of water with
air through cooling towers
The next presentation pretends to show the results and analysis obtained through the experimental
procedure performed in a packed cooling tower.
For this, have been evaluated two packing types: one of them corresponds to the original tower packing
and the other one to a properly designed packing. In order to compare and evaluate the performance
and effectiveness of these, have been determined the global mass transfer coefficients for each one.
In addition to this, have been determined the minimum amount of air required to carry out the cooling
process in order to find the oversizing factor
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
For this experiment was used a cooling tower PA Hilton brand, of forced draft and crosscurrent.
For this experience the working conditions were:
o A power of 0.5 KW
o 0% in the fan opening
The water that enters to the tower is pumped from a reservoir where it is heated. Water flow is also dosed by a
distribution system, and it falls by gravity from the top. The water flow temperature is measured at the inlet and
outlet of the tower with a thermocouple. The water flow is measured by a rotameter.
The air is provided by a fan located at the lower section of the tower and it can be adjusted by a rotatory door. Air
flows through the packing in the opposite direction of the water stream and while it rises, its moisture content
increases. The dry and wet bulb temperature at the air inlet and outlet is measured also by a thermocouple. The
airflow estimation is done by the air speed measurement, which is made using a anemometer.
During the experiment have been used two different kinds of packing, the original and a properly designed
packing. The original consists of several rows of shingles overlapping each other. The designed packing
consists of plastic and Styrofoam spheres which are randomly added into the tower with a total height
equivalent to the original packing height.
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE COOLING TOWER
THEORETICAL METHOD
Mass Transfer Coefficient

:
1. Suppose the water that gets out of the tower
has his temperature 5C more than the wet
bulb temperature at the inlet of the gas.
2. Obtain the Psychometric chart of the air at the
Medellin atmospheric pressure.
3. Graph the air saturation enthalpy (axis y)
respect to the water flow temperature range
(axis x).
4. Plot the operation line. It consists in a straight
line between the water temperature at the inlet
and outlet of the tower (axis x) vs. the enthalpy
of the gas in the same points (axis y).
5. Plot the minimum operation line. In order to do
this, it must be taken the outlet conditions
point (lower point of the operation line) and
then trace a tangent line to the saturation
curve.
Definition:

=

1
2

(1)
Where:

: air saturation enthalpy .

: air operation line enthalpy.

1
and
2
correspond to the operation line extreme values.
6. Solve equation (1). This is done by tabulate the values of
1

, and then using a numerical

method.
H Saturation (Kj/Kgas) H Operation (Kj/Kgas) 1/(H'-H)
77,1 54,99 0,04523495
81,49 58,95 0,044362817
86,17 62,90 0,042981174
91,16 66,86 0,041151247
96,1 70,81 0,039548827
101,98 74,77 0,036751465
107,52 78,73 0,034728975
From equation (1):
=

(2)
Where:

: gas flow mass per square meter unit.

(3)
Z: packing height.
7. Solve equation (2)
Oversizing factor :
1. Obtain the minimum operation line slope:
=
(
2

1
)
(
2

1
)
(4)
Definition:
=

(5)
Where:
L': water mass flow

: Specific heat of liquid

2. Obtain

value from equations (4) and (5)

3. Find oversizing factor:
=

(6)
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Each figure contains the equilibrium curve for the saturated air and also the operating
line and the minimum operating line

and

results for each packing :

As can be seen, the designed packing has a value
of

less than the corresponding to the original

packing, which indicates that the original packing
presents a higher degree of mass-transfer from
the liquid phase to the gas phase, generating a
greater cooling of water. This implies that the
original packing of the tower has a higher contact
area between the gas phase and the liquid phase.
The designed packing has a higher Number of
Enthalpy Transfer Units and therefor a lower
difficulty for transfer this enthalpy. Also has a
greater Enthalpy Transfer Unit Height, which
represents a better packing efficiency.
Original Packing Designed Packing

(/
3
. ) 3,3492 2,2758

0,9682 0,7802

() 0,4462 0,5537
Oversizing results:
It can be seen that for both packing the relation
between

and
,
obtains values greater
than 1, which means that in both cases the tower is
oversized in a value greater than twice.
Therefore, it is possible to conclude that both towers
have an oversizing greater than 200%, which
indicates that the air flow used during the tower
operation greatly exceeds the minimum air flow
through which it would be possible to obtain the
same inlet and outlet conditions.
In this case, the oversizing is a bit high, which is of
very important care because it implies an
unnecessary increase in the equipment operation
cost and air flow wastage.
This situation can lead to two possible solutions:
reduce fan power or increase the packing height in
order to take advantage of this air excess and
increase the cooling effect.
G's
(Kg/m^2*s
)
G's min
(Kg/m^2*s
)
Oversizing
Original Packing 1,4944 0,0159 2,1288
Designed Packing 1,2601 0,0153 2,1297
Is important see that the results presented could be influenced by errors in measurements and by
incorrectly operating mechanisms. Some of these negative factors could be the distribution of the liquid
at the inlet to the tower which wasn't uniformly, the contact of the liquid with the walls of the tower
could possibly generate wet wall cooling, as may also exist inaccuracies in the measurement method for
the wet bulb temperature. All of this would influence the results for the overall coefficient of mass
transfer and for the oversizing
CONCLUSIONS
Molecular mass transport is mainly due to a concentration gradient, but sometimes may be due to a
temperature gradient which additionally generates an energy transfer. Therefore the mass transfer operations
are usually accompanied by a heat transfer.
The use of packing in cooling towers is of vital importance in these processes, due to they facilitate and provide
the necessary conditions for the mass and heat transfer phenomena generation.
Shape, size and others packing characteristics have a huge influence in the packing effectiveness. Therefore, the
proper selection and design of the packing can significantly increase or decrease the cooling process and tower
efficiency.
The consideration and analysis of concepts as

and

in cooling towers designing are of great importance

due to they bring a measure of the packing behavior and effectiveness.
The over sizing factor is a also a very important and useful parameter in designing and improving of cooling
towers due to it ensures that the process is carried out at the necessary conditions to obtain the required
results. However, it must be taken into account not reach very high values of this parameter due to it could lead
to some resource wastage and unnecessary costs