Performance characteristics of a shower cooling tower

This study was prompted by the need to design towers for applications in which, due to salt deposition on the packing and subsequent blockage, the use of tower packing is not practical. In contrast to conventional cooling towers, the cooling tower analyzed in this study is void of fill. By means of efficient atomization nozzles, a shower cooling tower (SCT) is possible to be applied in industry, which, in terms of water cooling, energy saving and equipment investing, is better than conventional packed cooling towers. However, no systematic thermodynamic numerical method could be found in the literature up to now. Based on the kinetic model and mass and heat transfer model, this paper has developed a one dimensional model for studying the motional process and evaporative cooling process occurring at the water droplet level in the SCT. The finite difference approach is used for three motional processes to obtain relative parameters in each different stage, and the possibility of the droplets being entrained outside the tower is fully analyzed. The accuracy of this model is checked by practical operational results from a full scale prototype in real conditions, and some exclusive factors that affect the cooling characteristics for the SCT are analyzed in detail. This study provides the theoretical foundation for practical application of the SCT in industry.