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The document summarizes a cooling tower process where water is cooled from 41°C to 34°C with air that enters at 35/31.2°C and exits at 40/39.5°C at a rate of 7000 USgpm. (a) The air flow rate into the cooling tower is calculated to be 480,778 cfm. (b) The makeup water flow rate to replace water lost through evaporation is calculated to be 4.8 kg/s or 1.1% of the condenser water flow rate. (c) The liquid to gas ratio in the cooling tower is calculated to be 1.8.

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242 views3 pages

CT

The document summarizes a cooling tower process where water is cooled from 41°C to 34°C with air that enters at 35/31.2°C and exits at 40/39.5°C at a rate of 7000 USgpm. (a) The air flow rate into the cooling tower is calculated to be 480,778 cfm. (b) The makeup water flow rate to replace water lost through evaporation is calculated to be 4.8 kg/s or 1.1% of the condenser water flow rate. (c) The liquid to gas ratio in the cooling tower is calculated to be 1.8.

Uploaded by

Sundar DAAC
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Cooling water leaves the condenser of a 2500 TR chiller in a District Cooling plant and enters a cooling

tower at 41°C at a rate of 7000 USgpm. The water is cooled to 34°Cin the cooling tower by air that
enters the tower at DB/WB =35/31.2°C and leaves at DB/WB=40/39.5°C.
determine (a) the volume flow rate of air into the cooling tower in cfm and (b) the mass flow rate of
the required makeup water. (c) L/G ratio.

Solution:
We take the entire cooling tower to be
the system, which is shown
schematically in the figure to the right.

We note that the mass flow rate of


liquid water decreases by an amount
equal to the amount of water that
vaporizes in the tower during the
cooling process. The water lost through
evaporation must be made up later in
the cycle to maintain steady operation.

Steady operating conditions exist and


thus the mass flow rate of dry air
remains constant during the entire
process.

(a)

Dry air mass balance:

𝑚𝑎̇ 1 = 𝑚𝑎̇ 2 = 𝑚̇ 𝑎
Dry air mass balance: 𝑚𝑎̇ 1 = 𝑚𝑎̇ 2 = 𝑚̇ 𝑎
Water mass balance: 𝑚3̇ + 𝑚𝑎̇ 1 𝜔1 = 𝑚4̇ + 𝑚𝑎̇ 2 𝜔2

Or 𝑚3̇ − 𝑚4 ̇ = 𝑚𝑎̇ (𝜔2 − 𝜔1 ) = 𝑚𝑚𝑢


̇
Energy balance: ∑𝑖𝑛 𝑚̇ ℎ =∑𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚̇ ℎ → 𝑚𝑎̇ 1 ℎ1 + 𝑚̇ 3 ℎ3 = 𝑚𝑎̇ 2 ℎ2 + 𝑚̇ 4 ℎ4

Or 𝑚̇ 3 ℎ3 = 𝑚̇ 𝑎 (ℎ2 − ℎ1 ) + (𝑚̇ 3 − 𝑚𝑚𝑢


̇ ) ℎ4
Solving for 𝒎̇ 𝒂 gives:

𝑚̇ 3 (ℎ3 − ℎ4 ) 𝑚̇ 3 𝐶𝑝 (𝑇3 − 𝑇4 )
𝑚̇𝑎 = → 𝑚
̇ 𝑎=
(ℎ2 − ℎ1 ) − (𝜔2 − 𝜔1 ) ℎ4 (ℎ2 − ℎ1 ) − (𝜔2 − 𝜔1 ) 𝐶𝑝 𝑇4

𝒎∙𝟑 = 𝒎∙𝒘 = 7000 USgpm = 442 kg/s

Air properties at tower inlet DB/WB= 35°C/31.2°C

h1 KJ/kg 𝝎1 𝑘𝑔𝑤 /𝑘𝑔𝑎 𝜗1 𝑚3 /𝑘𝑔


105.89 0.0276 0.910

Air properties at tower exit DB/WB= 40°C/39.5°C

h2 KJ/kg 𝝎2 𝑘𝑔𝑤 /𝑘𝑔𝑎 𝜗2 𝑚3 /𝑘𝑔


161.86 0.0473 0.953

442 × 4.186 (41 − 34)


𝑚𝑎∙ = = 243.6 𝑘𝑔/𝑠
(161.86 − 105.89) − [(0.0473 − 0.0276) × 4.186 × 34]
0.91 + 0.953 3
𝑚𝑎∙ = 234.6 𝑘𝑔/𝑠 × 𝑚 /𝑘𝑔 = 226.9 𝑚3 /𝑠
2
480,778 𝑐𝑓𝑚
𝑚𝑎∙ = 480,778 𝑐𝑓𝑚 → 𝑚𝑎∙ = → 𝑚𝑎∙ = 𝟏𝟗𝟐. 𝟑 𝒄𝒇𝒎/𝑻𝑹
2500 𝑇𝑅

(b)

The mass flow rate of the required makeup water is determined from:

̇ = 𝑚𝑎̇ (𝜔2 − 𝜔1 ) = 243.6 (0.0473 − 0.0276) = 4.8 𝑘𝑔/𝑠


𝑚𝑚𝑢

𝑚𝑚𝑢
̇ 4.8
∙ = 442 = 0.0109 = 1.1% which concludes that evaporation rate in the cooling tower is approximately 1.1% of
𝑚𝑤

the condenser water flow.

(c)
∙
𝐿 𝑚𝑤 442
= ∙ = = 1.8
𝐺 𝑚𝑎 243.6

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