Cooling Tower

“It is a heat rejection device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or, in the case of closed circuit dry cooling towers, rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the dry-bulb air temperature” (Source: Wikipedia).

• Centrifugal cooling tower: device that uses a centrifugal fan to move the air which is necessary to perform forced evaporation. Generally preferred when there are noise problems, need for air ducting or when sound-absorbing silencers are needed.
• Closed circuit cooling towers. Tower in which the process fluid which is cooled (often not water, but a cooling fluid) does not come into contact with the cooling water. This is distributed on the outer surface of a tube-bundle or of linked plates and circulates between the distributor and the basin.
• Crossflow cooling towers (against the current). Towers in which the air flow goes in opposing directions.
• Counterflow cooling towers. “In a counterflow design, the air flow is directly opposite to the water flow. Air flow first enters an open area beneath the fill media, and is then drawn up vertically. The water is sprayed through pressurized nozzles near the top of the tower, and then flows downward through the fill, opposite to the air flow” (Source: Wikipedia).
• Factory-assembled cooling tower: small and medium-sized, totally factory assembled in 2 or 3 main sections with dimensions that are compatible for road or sea transport. No assembly time or a few days for modular systems.
• Field-erected cooling tower. Generally large, in order to reduce transport costs. It is transported completely disassembled and assembled directly at the installation site. Assembly times are roughly variable between 20 and 60 days.
• Mechanical draft cooling tower. Evaporative cooler in which the water is cooled by partial evaporation through contact with a mechanically driven air stream.
• Open circuit cooling towers. Evaporative system that cools water through direct exchange with air.

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Marco Giacinto