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1.

Introduction
1.1. General
A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which 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. Common applications include
cooling the circulating water used in oil refineries, petrochemical and other chemical
plants, thermal power stations and HVAC systems for cooling buildings. The classification is
based on the type of air induction into the tower: the main types of cooling towers are natural
draft and induced draft cooling towers.

Design and construction of efficient and economic Reinforced Concrete (RC)


Hyperbolic cooling towers have driven the engineers toward the design of tall and thin-
shell towers which have considerable high slenderness aspect ratio. Consequently, the shell of
R.C. cooling towers with relative high slenderness aspect ratio is extremely prone to buckling
instability due to wind loading. In the absence of earthquake loading, wind constitutes the
main loading for the design of natural draught cooling towers. To increase the structural
stability or buckling safety factor, one economic approach is to design and construct stiffening
rings for the R.C Hyperbolic cooling towers. The analysis of these towers is an interesting and
challenging to any structural engineer in view of their size and shape.

Cooling towers vary in size from small roof-top units to very large hyperboloid structures (as
in the adjacent image) that can be up to 200 metres (660 ft) tall and 100 metres (330 ft) in
diameter, or rectangular structures that can be over 40 metres (130 ft) tall and 80 metres
(260 ft) long. The hyperboloid cooling towers are often associated with nuclear power
plants although they are also used to some extent in some large chemical and other industrial
plants. Although these large towers are very prominent, the vast majority of cooling towers
are much smaller, including many units installed on or near buildings to discharge heat
from air conditioning.
A cooling tower is an enclosed device, designed for the evaporative cooling of water where
hot water gets cooled by direct contact with air. Towers are divided into two main types, the
first being named natural draught cooling towers and the second mechanical draught cooling
towers. In natural draught tower, the circulation of air is induced by enclosing the heated
air in a chimney which then contains a column of air which is lighter than the
surrounding atmosphere. This difference in weight produces a continuous flow of air
through the cooling tower as long as water at a temperature above the wet bulb
temperature is circulated through the cooling tower
Reinforced Concrete Cooling towers of hyperbolic shell configuration find wide spread
application in utilities engaged in the production of electric power. Natural Draught
hyperbolic cooling towers are characterizing land marks of power stations. They comprise of
a thin concrete shell of revolution are common place in civil engineering infrastructure. The
wind load is always the dominant load in the design of the cooling tower due to its large size,
complex geometry and thin wall.

Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in oil refineries,
petrochemical and other chemical plants, thermal power stations and HVAC systems for
cooling buildings. The classification is based on the type of air induction into the tower: the
main types of cooling towers are natural draft and induced draft cooling towers.

Figure 1 cooling tower


1.2. Code Of Provision IS 11504(Clauseno.6.1pg.No.7)
 The base diameter, air intake, opening height, tower height and throat diameter arc
basically determined by thermal design considerations. As the range of possible hyperbolic
shell shapes is infinite it is recommended that the designs be confined to the following major
proportions which have been extensively adopted in cooling tower constrsctions. Other
proportions shall be carefully studied before adoption:
𝐻/𝑑 =1.20 to 1.55
𝐻𝑏/𝐻 =0.75 to 0.85
 The minimum thickness of the shell shall not be less than 140 mm for towers of
height 75 m and above; for towers less than 75 m height the minimum thickness shall not be
less than 100 mm

1.3. History
A 1902 engraving of "Barnard's fan less self-cooling tower", an early large evaporative
cooling tower that relied on natural draft and open sides rather than a fan; water to be cooled
was sprayed from the top onto the radial pattern of vertical wire-mesh mats.

Cooling towers originated in the 19th century through the development of condensers for use
with the steam engine. Condensers use relatively cool water, via various means, to condense
the steam coming out of the cylinders or turbines. This reduces the back pressure, which in
turn reduces the steam consumption, and thus the fuel consumption, while at the same time
increasing power and recycling boiler-water. However the condensers require an ample
supply of cooling water, without which they are impractical—the cost of the water exceeds
the savings on fuel. The consumption of cooling water by inland processing and power plants
is estimated to reduce power availability for the majority of thermal power plants by 2040–
2069. While water usage is not an issue with marine engines, it forms a significant limitation
for many land-based systems.

By the turn of the 20th century, several evaporative methods of recycling cooling water were
in use in areas lacking an established water supply, as well as in urban locations where
municipal water mains may not be of sufficient supply; be reliable in times of demand; or
otherwise adequate to meet cooling needs. In areas with available land, the systems took the
form of cooling ponds; in areas with limited land, such as in cities, it took the form of cooling
towers.

These early towers were positioned either on the rooftops of buildings or as free-standing
structures, supplied with air by fans or relying on natural airflow. An American engineering
textbook from 1911 described one design as "a circular or rectangular shell of light plate — in
effect, a chimney stack much shortened vertically (20 to 40 ft. high) and very much enlarged
laterally. At the top is a set of distributing troughs, to which the water from the condenser
must be pumped; from these it trickles down over "mats" made of wooden slats or woven
wire screens, which fill the space within the tower."

A hyperboloid cooling tower was patented by the Dutch engineers Frederik van Iverson and
Gerard Kuypers in 1918. The first hyperboloid cooling towers were built in 1918 near
Heerlen. The first ones in the United Kingdom were built in 1924 at Lister Drive power
station in Liverpool, England to cool water used at a coal-fired electrical power station.

1.4. Classification by use


Cooling towers are also used in HVAC systems that have multiple water source heat
pumps that share a common piping water loop. In this type of system, the water circulating
inside the water loop removes heat from the condenser of the heat pumps whenever the heat
pumps are working in the cooling mode, then the externally mounted cooling tower is used to
remove heat from the water loop and reject it to the atmosphere. By contrast, when the heat
pumps are working in heating mode, the condensers draw heat out of the loop water and reject
it into the space to be heated. When the water loop is being used primarily to supply heat to
the building, the cooling tower is normally shut down (and may be drained or winterized to
prevent freeze damage), and heat is supplied by other means, usually from separate boilers.
1.4.1 Industrial cooling towers

Figure 2.Industrial cooling towers for a power plant

Industrial cooling towers can be used to remove heat from various sources such as machinery
or heated process material. The primary use of large, industrial cooling towers is to remove
the heat absorbed in the circulating cooling water systems used in power plants, petroleum
refineries, petrochemical plants, natural gas processing plants, food processing plants, semi-
conductor plants, and for other industrial facilities such as in condensers of distillation
columns, for cooling liquid in crystallization, etc. The circulation rate of cooling water in a
typical 700 MW coal-fired power plant with a cooling tower amounts to about 71,600 cubic
metres an hour (315,000 US gallons per minute) and the circulating water requires a supply
water make-up rate of perhaps 5 percent (i.e., 3,600 cubic metres an hour).

If that same plant had no cooling tower and used once-through cooling water, it would require
about 100,000 cubic metres an hour and that amount of water would have to be continuously
returned to the ocean, lake or river from which it was obtained and continuously re-supplied
to the plant. Furthermore, discharging large amounts of hot water may raise the temperature
of the receiving river or lake to an unacceptable level for the local ecosystem. Elevated water
temperatures can kill fish and other aquatic organisms (see thermal pollution), or can also
cause an increase in undesirable organisms such as invasive species of Zebra mussels or
algae. A cooling tower serves to dissipate the heat into the atmosphere instead and wind and
air diffusion spreads the heat over a much larger area than hot water can distribute heat in a
body of water. Some coal-fired and nuclear power plants located in coastal areas do make use
of once-through ocean water. But even there, the offshore discharge water outlet requires very
careful design to avoid environmental problems.

The world's tallest cooling tower is the 202 metres (663 ft) tall cooling tower of Kalisindh
Thermal Power Station in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India.

Figure 3 Field erected cooling tower

1.5. Classification by build

1.5.1. Package type


Figure 4 Packaged Cooling Tower

These types of cooling towers are factory preassembled, and can be simply transported on
trucks, as they are compact machines. The capacity of package type towers is limited and, for
that reason, they are usually preferred by facilities with low heat rejection requirements such
as food processing plants, textile plants, some chemical processing plants, or buildings like
hospitals, hotels, malls, automotive factories etc.

Due to their frequent use in or near residential areas, sound level control is a relatively more
important issue for package type cooling towers.

1.5.2. Field erected type


Facilities such as power plants, steel processing plants, petroleum refineries, or petrochemical
plants usually install field erected type cooling towers due to their greater capacity for heat
rejection. Field erected towers are usually much larger in size compared to the package type
cooling towers.

A typical field erected cooling tower has a pultruded fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) structure,
FRP cladding, a mechanical unit for air draft, drift eliminator, and fill.

1.6. Heat transfer methods in cooling tower


With respect to the heat transfer mechanism employed, the main types are:

 Dry cooling towers operate by heat transfer through a surface that separates the working
fluid from ambient air, such as in a tube to air heat exchanger, utilizing convective heat
transfer. They do not use evaporation.
 Wet cooling towers (or open circuit cooling towers) operate on the principle
of evaporative cooling. The working fluid and the evaporated fluid (usually water) are one
and the same.
 Fluid coolers (or closed circuit cooling towers) are hybrids that pass the working fluid
through a tube bundle, upon which clean water is sprayed and a fan-induced draft applied.
The resulting heat transfer performance is much closer to that of a wet cooling tower, with
the advantage provided by a dry cooler of protecting the working fluid from
environmental exposure and contamination.
In a wet cooling tower (or open circuit cooling tower), the warm water can be cooled to a
temperature lower than the ambient air dry-bulb temperature, if the air is relatively dry
(see dew point and psychometrics). As ambient air is drawn past a flow of water, a small
portion of the water evaporates, and the energy required to evaporate that portion of the water
is taken from the remaining mass of water, thus reducing its temperature. Approximately 970
BTU of heat energy is absorbed for each pound of evaporated water. Evaporation results in
saturated air conditions, lowering the temperature of the water processed by the tower to a
value close to wet-bulb temperature, which is lower than the ambient dry-bulb temperature,
the difference determined by the initial humidity of the ambient air.

To achieve better performance (more cooling), a medium called fill is used to increase the
surface area and the time of contact between the air and water flows. Splash fillconsists of
material placed to interrupt the water flow causing splashing. Film fill is composed of thin
sheets of material (usually PVC) upon which the water flows. Both methods create increased
surface area and time of contact between the fluid (water) and the gas (air), to improve heat
transfer.

1.7. Air flow generation methods in cooling tower

Figure 5 FIELD ERECTED COOLING TOWER WITH RAKING COLUMN

Access stairs at the base of a massive hyperboloid cooling tower give a sense of its scale (UK)
With respect to drawing air through the tower, there are three types of cooling towers:
1.7.1. Natural draft — Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney. Warm, moist air naturally rises
due to the density differential compared to the dry, cooler outside air. Warm moist air is less
dense than drier air at the same pressure. This moist air buoyancy produces an upwards
current of air through the tower.

1.7.2. Mechanical draught — uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw air through the
tower.
1.7.2.1. Induced draught — A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the discharge (at the
top) which pulls air up through the tower. The fan induces hot moist air out the discharge.
This produces low entering and high exiting air velocities, reducing the possibility of re-
circulation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake. This fan/fin arrangement is
also known as draw-through.

1.7.2.2. Forced draught — A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at the
intake. The fan forces air into the tower, creating high entering and low exiting air velocities.
The low exiting velocity is much more susceptible to recirculation. With the fan on the air
intake, the fan is more susceptible to complications due to freezing conditions. Another
disadvantage is that a forced draft design typically requires more motor horsepower than an
equivalent induced draft design. The benefit of the forced draft design is its ability to work
with high static pressure. Such setups can be installed in more-confined spaces and even in
some indoor situations. This fan/fill geometry is also known as blow-through.
1.7.2.3. Fan assisted natural draught — A hybrid type that appears like a natural draft
setup, though airflow is assisted by a fan.

Hyperboloid (sometimes incorrectly known as hyperbolic) cooling towers have


become the design standard for all natural-draft cooling towers because of their structural
strength and minimum usage of material. The hyperboloid shape also aids in accelerating the
upward convective air flow, improving cooling efficiency. These designs are popularly
associated with nuclear power plants. However, this association is misleading, as the same
kind of cooling towers are often used at large coal-fired power plants as well. Conversely, not
all nuclear power plants have cooling towers, and some instead cool their heat exchangers
with lake, river or ocean water.

1.8. IS Code Provision (IS 11504:1985)

1.8.1. Openings in Shells (clause no.6.3.5) - Opening through the shells should be avoided as
far as possible. They should be of smallest required dimensions and shall be shaped such that
stress concentration is minimized at the boundary of the opening. Should thickening of the
edges be necessary, it shall be smoothly tapered back to the shell thickness. Openings shall be
provided with additional edge reinforcements of a minimum cross-sectional area at each edge
equal to 75 percent of the reinforcement intercepted by the openings in the direction parallel
to the edges. In addition, diagonal reinforcement shall be provided at each corner as close as
possible. The total cross-sectional area in cm2of this reinforcement shall be 0.05d, at each
corner where d is the shell thickness in cm.
1. Introduction 1
1.1. General 1
1.2. Code Of Provision IS 11504(Clauseno.6.1pg.No.7) 3
1.3. History 3
1.4. Classification by use 4
1.5. Classification by build 6
1.6. Heat transfer methods in cooling tower 7
1.7. Air flow generation methods in cooling tower 8
1.8. IS Code Provision (IS 11504:1985) 10

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