IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v36y2011i10p5815-5823.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experimental investigation of the hydraulic characteristics of a counter flow wet cooling tower

Author

Listed:
  • Lemouari, M.
  • Boumaza, M.
  • Kaabi, A.

Abstract

Thermal and nuclear electric power plants as well as several industrial processes invariably discharge considerable energy to their surrounding by heat transfer. Although water drawn from a nearby river or lake can be employed to carry away this energy, cooling towers offer an excellent alternative particularly in locations where sufficient cooling water cannot be easily obtained from natural sources or where concern for the environment imposes some limits on the temperature at which cooling water can be returned to the surrounding. This paper concerns an experimental investigation of the hydraulic characteristics of a counter flow wet cooling tower. The tower contains a “VGA.” (Vertical Grid Apparatus) type packing which is 0.42 m high and consists of four (04) galvanised sheets having a zigzag form, between which are disposed three (03) metallic vertical grids in parallel with a cross sectional test area of 0.15 m × 0.148 m. The present investigation is focused mainly on the effect of the air and water flow rates on the hydraulic characteristics of the cooling tower, for different inlet water temperatures. The two hydrodynamic operating regimes which were observed during the air/water contact operation within the tower, namely the Pellicular Regime (PR) and the Bubble and Dispersion Regime (BDR) have enabled to distinguish two different states of pressure drop characteristics. The first regime is characterized by low pressure drop values, while in the second regime, the pressure drop values are relatively much higher than those observed in the first one. The dependence between the pressure drop characteristics and the combined heat and mass transport (air–water) through the packing inside the cooling tower is also highlighted. The obtained results indicate that this type of tower possesses relatively good hydraulic characteristics. This leads to the saving of energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lemouari, M. & Boumaza, M. & Kaabi, A., 2011. "Experimental investigation of the hydraulic characteristics of a counter flow wet cooling tower," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 5815-5823.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:36:y:2011:i:10:p:5815-5823
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544211005858
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.045?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Picón-Núnez, Martín & Polley, Graham T. & Canizalez-Dávalos, Lázaro & Medina-Flores, José Martín, 2011. "Short cut performance method for the design of flexible cooling systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 4646-4653.
    2. Chen, Qun & Pan, Ning & Guo, Zeng-Yuan, 2011. "A new approach to analysis and optimization of evaporative cooling system II: Applications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 2890-2898.
    3. Chen, Qun & Yang, Kangding & Wang, Moran & Pan, Ning & Guo, Zeng-Yuan, 2010. "A new approach to analysis and optimization of evaporative cooling system I: Theory," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 2448-2454.
    4. Bedekar, S.V & Nithiarasu, P & Seetharamu, K.N, 1998. "Experimental investigation of the performance of a counter-flow, packed-bed mechanical cooling tower," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(11), pages 943-947.
    5. Kumar, Ritunesh & Dhar, P.L. & Jain, Sanjeev, 2011. "Development of new wire mesh packings for improving the performance of zero carryover spray tower," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 1362-1374.
    6. Zhai, Haibo & Rubin, Edward S., 2010. "Performance and cost of wet and dry cooling systems for pulverized coal power plants with and without carbon capture and storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 5653-5660, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sun, Jin & Feng, Xiao & Wang, Yufei & Deng, Chun & Chu, Khim Hoong, 2014. "Pump network optimization for a cooling water system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 506-512.
    2. Tarun Kumar Aseri & Chandan Sharma & Tara C. Kandpal, 2022. "Condenser cooling technologies for concentrating solar power plants: a review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 4511-4565, April.
    3. Ma, Jiaze & Wang, Yufei & Feng, Xiao, 2017. "Energy recovery in cooling water system by hydro turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 329-340.
    4. Cui, Haijiao & Li, Nianping & Peng, Jinqing & Cheng, Jianlin & Li, Shengbing, 2016. "Study on the dynamic and thermal performances of a reversibly used cooling tower with upward spraying," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 268-277.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yu Zhai & Xu Zhao & Zhifeng Dong, 2022. "Research on Performance Optimization of Gravity Heat Pipe for Mine Return Air," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Zhan, Changhong & Duan, Zhiyin & Zhao, Xudong & Smith, Stefan & Jin, Hong & Riffat, Saffa, 2011. "Comparative study of the performance of the M-cycle counter-flow and cross-flow heat exchangers for indirect evaporative cooling – Paving the path toward sustainable cooling of buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 6790-6805.
    3. Duan, Zhiyin & Zhan, Changhong & Zhang, Xingxing & Mustafa, Mahmud & Zhao, Xudong & Alimohammadisagvand, Behrang & Hasan, Ala, 2012. "Indirect evaporative cooling: Past, present and future potentials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6823-6850.
    4. Sun, Yubiao & Guan, Zhiqiang & Gurgenci, Hal & Wang, Jianyong & Dong, Peixin & Hooman, Kamel, 2019. "Spray cooling system design and optimization for cooling performance enhancement of natural draft dry cooling tower in concentrated solar power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 273-284.
    5. Wang, Huiru & Liu, Zhenyu & Wu, Huiying, 2017. "Entransy dissipation-based thermal resistance optimization of slab LHTES system with multiple PCMs arranged in a 2D array," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 739-751.
    6. Chen, Qun & Xu, Yun-Chao & Hao, Jun-Hong, 2014. "An optimization method for gas refrigeration cycle based on the combination of both thermodynamics and entransy theory," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 982-989.
    7. Goudarzi, Mohammad Ali, 2013. "Proposing a new technique to enhance thermal performance and reduce structural design wind loads for natural drought cooling towers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 164-172.
    8. Ma, Xiaoli & Zeng, Cheng & Zhu, Zishang & Zhao, Xudong & Xiao, Xin & Akhlaghi, Yousef Golizadeh & Shittu, Samson, 2023. "Real life test of a novel super performance dew point cooling system in operational live data centre," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    9. Liu, Y.K. & Tao, Y.B., 2018. "Thermodynamic analysis and optimization of multistage latent heat storage unit under unsteady inlet temperature based on entransy theory," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 488-496.
    10. Yuan, Fang & Chen, Qun, 2012. "A global optimization method for evaporative cooling systems based on the entransy theory," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 181-191.
    11. Cui, Haijiao & Li, Nianping & Wang, Xinlei & Peng, Jinqing & Li, Yuan & Wu, Zhibin, 2017. "Optimization of reversibly used cooling tower with downward spraying," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 30-43.
    12. Kim, Min-Hwi & Kim, Jin-Hyo & Choi, An-Seop & Jeong, Jae-Weon, 2011. "Experimental study on the heat exchange effectiveness of a dry coil indirect evaporation cooler under various operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 6479-6489.
    13. Wang, C. & Zhu, Y., 2018. "Entransy analysis on optimization of a double-stage latent heat storage unit with the consideration of an unequal separation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 386-396.
    14. Peer, Rebecca A.M. & Sanders, Kelly T., 2018. "The water consequences of a transitioning US power sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 613-622.
    15. Yang, Lin & Lv, Haodong & Jiang, Dalin & Fan, Jingli & Zhang, Xian & He, Weijun & Zhou, Jinsheng & Wu, Wenjing, 2020. "Whether CCS technologies will exacerbate the water crisis in China? —A full life-cycle analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    16. Xu, Mingtian, 2012. "Variational principles in terms of entransy for heat transfer," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 973-977.
    17. Zhihua Zhang, 2015. "Techno-Economic Assessment of Carbon Capture and Storage Facilities Coupled to Coal-Fired Power Plants," Energy & Environment, , vol. 26(6-7), pages 1069-1080, November.
    18. Benjamin Court & Thomas Elliot & Joseph Dammel & Thomas Buscheck & Jeremy Rohmer & Michael Celia, 2012. "Promising synergies to address water, sequestration, legal, and public acceptance issues associated with large-scale implementation of CO 2 sequestration," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 569-599, August.
    19. Panjeshahi, Mohammad Hassan & Gharaie, Mona & Ataei, Abtin, 2010. "Debottlenecking procedure of effluent thermal treatment system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 5202-5208.
    20. Calise, Francesco & Cappiello, Francesco Liberato & Cimmino, Luca & Dentice d’Accadia, Massimo & Vicidomini, Maria, 2023. "Renewable smart energy network: A thermoeconomic comparison between conventional lithium-ion batteries and reversible solid oxide fuel cells," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 74-95.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:36:y:2011:i:10:p:5815-5823. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.