Cooling Tower Performance

Several parameters describe the performance of a

cooling tower.
Range is the temperature difference between the hot water
entering the cooling tower and the cold water leaving. The
range is virtually identical with the condenser rise. Note that
the range is not determined by performance of the tower, but is
determined by the heat loading.
Approach is the difference between the temperature of the
water leaving the tower and the wet bulb temperature of the
entering air. The approach is affected by the cooling tower
capability.
For a given heat loading, water flow rate, and entering air
conditions, a larger tower will produce a smaller approach; i.e.,
the water leaving the tower will be colder.

Ambient wet bulb temperature and its effect on

performance
Ambient wet bulb temperature is a condition measured by a
device called a psychrometer. The measured wet bulb
temperature is a function of relative humidity and ambient air
temperature. Wet bulb temperature essentially measures how
much water vapor the atmosphere can hold at current weather
conditions. A lower wet bulb temperature means the air is drier
and can hold more water vapor than it can at a higher wet bulb
temperature. When selecting a cooling tower cell, the highest or
the design wet bulb temperature your geographical area will
encounter must be used. Highest wet bulb temperatures occur
during the summer, when air temperatures and humidity are
highest.

The temperature of air as read on the ordinary thermometer is

called DBT. WBT is the reading when the bulb of a thermometer is
covered with a wet cloth, and the instrument is whirled around in
a sling. RH is the ratio of the quantity of water vapor present in a
cubic feet of air to the greatest amount of vapor which that air
could hold at a given temperature.
When the relative humidity is 100%, the air cannot hold any more
water and therefore, water will not evaporate in 100% humid air.
When the RH is 100% the WBT is the same as the DBT, because
the water cannot evaporate any more. But when the RH is less
than 100%, the WBT will be less than the DBT and water will
evaporate. The capability of the cooling tower is a measure of
how close the tower can bring the water temperature to the WBT
of the entering air.
A larger cooling tower [i.e., more air and/or more fill] will produce
a closer approach [colder leaving water] for a given heat load,
flow rate and entering air condition. The lower the WBT, which
indicates either cool air, low humidity or a combination of the two,
the lower can the cooling tower can cool the water. The thermal
performance of the cooling tower is thus affected by the entering
WBT; the entering air DBT has an insignificant effect on thermal
performance. In actual practice, the final cold water temperature
will always be at least a few degrees above WBT, depending on
design conditions. It is not customary in the cooling tower
industry to guarantee any approach less than 5 oF.

Tower Characteristic (MeM or NTU) is a characteristic of the

tower that relates tower design and operating characteristics to
the amount of heat that can be transferred. For a given set of
operating conditions, the design constants that depend on the
tower fill. For a tower that is to be evaluated using the
characteristic curve method, the manufacturer will provide a
tower characteristic curve.