Experimental Investigation into the Heat and Mass Transfer in an Indirect Contact Closed Circuit Cooling Tower

Abstract

The heat and mass transfer coefficients of the indirect contact closed circuit cooling tower, ICCCCT, were investigated experimentally. Different experiments were conducted involving the controlling parameters such as air velocity, spray water to air mass flow rate ratio, spray water flow rate, ambient air wet bulb temperature and the provided heat load to investigate their effects on the performance of the ICCCCT. Also the effect of using packing on the performance of the ICCCCT was investigated. It was noticed that these parameters affect the tower performance and the use of packing materials is a good approach to enhance the performance for different operational conditions. Correlations for mass and heat transfer coefficients are presented. The results showed a good agreement with other published works. Correlations are showed that the spray heat transfer coefficient is a function flow rates of spray water and air as well as spray water temperature while mass transfer coefficient is a function of spray water and air flow rates only.