CFD ANALYSIS OF FLOW THROUGH COOLING TOWER

Abstract

ABSTRACT A cooling tower is equipment which is used for rejecting the waste heat from hot water to environment. When hot water comes in contact with the air then sensible heat transfer and vaporization of some water droplet takes place due to which temperature of water decreases. Cooling tower is an important element in power plant and Heating ventilation air conditioning. The present work involves the CFD analysis of flow through the cooling tower. This thesis work is mainly on rain zone. The mass flow rate of water, air inlet temperature and water inlet temperature in rain zone is kept constant as 15000kg/s, 295K and 303K respectively throughout the study. Three geometries of different rain zone height 8.577m, 6.777m and 4.977m is made for analysis. The diameter of water droplet is varied by using Rosin-Rammler distribution and temperature drop for different heights of rain zone is found and rate of drop in temperature relatively with varying diameter for different rain zone heights is also compared. Results are analyzed and it reveals that with decrease in droplet diameter for any height of rain zone, temperature drop is increases and the rate of drop in temperature for 8.577m height is more than other two rain zones