Performance Evaluation of a Counter Flow Wet Cooling Tower Using Latin Square Design

The design and operating conditions of cooling towers in recirculating cooling-water systems have been the focus of manufacturers and process engineers with a concern for energy conservation process as main objective. The question of how to improve a cooling tower’s effective performance is still getting much of attention. The cooling tower’s efficiency is great when the incoming cooling water has moderate temperature and a low flow rate; in other words, the cooling tower removes more heat from the water. In this research an existing model was applied, simulated and then optimize by varying some parameters using Latin Square Design to show the influence of the re-circulating cooling-water inlet temperature, air outlet temperature, water flow rate and the air flow rate on the effectiveness of the cooling tower operation. It was discovered that as the water/air mass flow ratio, L/G, and the outlet air temperature increases, the cooling water range, R and cooling tower efficiency, 𝜂, decrease. Water cooling was best achieved at moderate inlet water temperature, low outlet air temperature, low water mass flow rate, and high air mass flow rate, higher efficiencies are obtained at lower inlet water temperatures for the same water/air mass flow ratio, and the greater the range of the cooling water, R, the higher the cooling tower efficiency.