Abstract

This work is related to the experimental design project requirement for undergraduate students in the Process Engineering Laboratory/Industrial System Engineering Program at the University of Regina /Saskatchewan-Canada for the Heat Mass and Momentum Transfer. This project is to compare the effectiveness and cooling performance of the standard film fill packing material in a water cooling tower apparatus. The results showed that increasing the air and water flow rates can increase efficiency by approximately 10% and 13%, respectively. The cooling ranges and ideal ranges of the cooling tower were used to calculate efficiencies between 83-97% for the regular packing material. Other calculations were performed, including approach, heat and mass transfer coefficients, the heat emitted, mass and energy balance, factorial design analysis using Minitab, Solid Edge work, etc. Many operating variables were evaluated, such as the effect of packing material, flow rates of air and water, water inlet temperature to study the effect of these variable on the efficiency of water cooling towers, which can be used to optimize cooling tower performance in industrial settings.

Keywords:Water cooling tower; Characteristic; Heat and mass transfer coefficient; Design of experiment

Abbreviations:A: Heat Transfer Area (𝑚2); Cp: Specific Heat of Fluid (𝑘𝐽/𝑘𝑔∗𝐾); 𝐺: Mass Flowrate of Air (𝑘𝑔/𝑠); ℎ: Enthalpy of Fluid (𝑘𝐽/𝑘𝑔); 𝐿: Mass Flow Rate of Water (𝑘𝑔/𝑠); 𝐿𝑤: Water Level Height (𝑚3); 𝑚̇: Mass Flowrate of Fluid (𝑘𝑔/𝑠); 𝑄: Amount of Heat Transferred (𝑘𝑊); 𝑞: Flow Rate of Fluid (𝐿/𝑚𝑖𝑛); 𝑞𝑚,𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠: Rate of Water Loss (𝑘𝑔/𝑠); 𝑞𝑣,𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠: Rate of Water Loss (𝑚3/𝑠); 𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑟: Temperature of Air (℃); 𝑇𝑤: Temperature of Water (℃); 𝑈: Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient (𝑘𝑊/𝑚2.𝐾); Δ𝑇𝑙𝑚: Log mean temperature difference (℃); 𝜌: Density of Fluid (Kg/m3); K: Mass transfer coefficient (Kg/m2.s); NTU: Number of Transfer Unit