TY - JOUR 
A1 - Lucas Miralles, Manuel
AU - Ruiz Ramírez, Javier
AU - Martínez Beltrán, Pedro Juan
AU - Sánchez Kaiser, Antonio
AU - Viedma Robles, Antonio
AU - Zamora Parra, Blas
T1 - Experimental study on the performance of a mechanical cooling tower fitted with different types of water distribution systems and drift eliminators.
Y1 - 2013
SN - 1359-4311
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10317/4573
AB - Cooling towers are evaporative heat transfer devices in which atmospheric air cools warm water, with direct contact between the water and the air by evaporating part of the water. The principle of operation of cooling towers requires spraying or distributing water over a heat transfer surface (packing) across or through which a stream of air is passing. As a result, water droplets are incorporated in the air stream and,depending on the velocity of the air, will be taken away from the unit. This is known as drift. Although cooling tower drift is objectionable for several reasons, the most hazardous problem concerning human health is the emission of chemicals or microorganisms into the atmosphere. Undoubtedly, regarding
microorganisms, the most well-known pathogens are the multiple species of bacteria collectively known as legionella.
The binomial water distribution system-drift eliminator is identified to be that mainly responsible for cooling tower drift. While water distribution systems affect the mechanics of setting up the drops, drift
eliminators work by changing the direction of the airflow and separating droplets from the airstream through inertial impact.
The drift eliminator’s performance can be quantified mainly by two factors: droplet collection efficiency and the pressure drop across the eliminator. In contrast, water distribution systems are characterized by
the pressure drop across itself and the achieved size of the particle spread. Alongside drift, the binomial water distribution system-drift eliminator affects the cooling tower performance. From the reviewed bibliography, some studies assessing the effect of the drift eliminator on cooling tower performance have been found. Nevertheless, no studies regarding the influence of the water distribution
system on the cooling tower’s performance have been detected. In this sense, this paper studies the thermal performance of a forced draft counter-flow wet cooling tower fitted with two water distribution systems (the pressure water distribution system (PWDS) and gravity water distribution system (GWDS)) for six drift eliminators for a wide range of air and water mass flow rates. The data registered in the experimental set-up were employed to obtain correlations of the tower characteristic, which defines the
cooling tower’s thermal performance. The outlet water temperature predicted by these correlations was compared with the experimentally registered values, obtaining a maximum averaged difference of ±0.95%.
KW - Mecánica de Fluidos
KW - Cooling tower
KW - Drift
KW - Drift eliminator
KW - Water distribution system
LA - eng
PB - Elsevier
ER -