S40 -- Cooling Towers (I-P)

Most air-conditioning systems and industrial processes generate heat that must be removed and dissipated. Water is commonly used as a heat transfer medium to remove heat from refrigerant condensers or industrial process heat exchangers. In the past, this was accomplished by drawing a continuous stream of water from a utility water supply or a natural body of water, heating it as it passed through the process, and then discharging the water directly to a sewer or returning it to the body of water. Water purchased from utilities for this purpose has become prohibitively expensive because of increased water supply and disposal costs. Similarly, cooling water drawn from natural sources is relatively unavailable because the ecological disturbance caused by the increased temperature of discharge water has become unacceptable. Principle of Operation Design Conditions Types of Cooling Towers Materials of Construction Selection Considerations Application Performance Curves Cooling Tower Thermal Performance Cooling Tower Theory Tower Coefficients Additional Information