Cooling tower energy balance

[balaplus]

In a mechanical draft cooling towers, can there be a serious contribution from sensible heat transfer between air and water under any conditions? Or is the heat ransfer largely due to evaporation only?

 

[krb]

My answer would be is that it depends on inlet air conditions. On a cooler day, the sensible contribution can be higher. In one example I am looking at in an HVAC text, the sensible heat transfer contribution for a condition where the entering air temperature is above the leaving water temperature is about 5%. The sensible contribution for a case where the entering air temperature is less than the leaving water temperature, the sensible contribution is 23%. I think you will have to look at your tower perfromance over a range of operating conditions to determine the amount of the sensible contribution as it varies and can be a significant part of the cooling. The reference I am looking at is the Handbook of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, by Shan Wang, Chapter 10. Good Luck

KB

 

[roker]

hello,

please refer to Perry's Chemical engineers handbook.

regards,
roker