Natural Draft Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is an open direct contact type heat exchanger where hot water from
system or condenser gets cooled by direct contact with fresh air. Cooling towers use the
principle of evaporation of water against the air flow. Hot water is sprayed from the
nozzles for increasing the heat transfer surface area. The temperature and humidity of
the air get increased after direct contact heat transfer between hot water and fresh air.
The warm and moist air being less dense goes to the top of the tower, and cold water
gets collected at the bottom of the tower. Fresh air is supplied from the bottom of the
cooling tower due to the density difference between hot air inside the stack and
atmospheric air outside the cooling tower.

In ​natural draft cooling towers​, air flow is obtained by pressure difference obtained
from its structure i.e. chimney effect. Warm and moist air (less dense) after heat transfer
will go out of the cooling tower to the atmosphere, creating to flow in fresh air (denser).
The flow of air occurs due to the density difference between the warm (less dense) air
inside the cooling tower and relatively cool (denser) ambient air outside the cooling
tower.
Components

● Supply Basin
● Tower Pumps
● Cooling Towers: _​​ Vertical Ribs – Reinforced Concrete Shell – Internal Void –
Diagonal Columns
● Hot Water Inlet
● Fill: – Splash – Film
● Hot Water Distribution System
● Cold Water Collection
● Drift Eliminators - Drift is water lost from cooling towers as liquid droplets are
entrained in the exhaust air. The drift loss is independent of the water lost by
evaporation. The drift loss may be expressed in units of lb/hr or percentage of
circulating water flow. Drift eliminators are used to control this drift loss from the
tower.

Working Principle
The hot water that is to be cooled in the cooling tower is pumped to the top of the
cooling tower at the hot water inlet. The hot water inlet is connected to a series of
nozzles which spray this water over the fill material (provides a large contact surface
area for heat transfer). Fresh air is induced by the open structure at bottom of the tower
and then the air flows in the upward direction for direct contact heat transfer between
warm water and air. The hot water liberates heat after direct contact with fresh air and
some of the water gets evaporated and cold water gets collected at the bottom of the
tower. Warm and moist air will be discharged from the top of the tower into the
atmosphere.
Pressure head developed due to the density difference between the cold air and warm
air is given by formula,

Where H is the height of the tower above the fill,

ρo is the density of outside air,

ρi is the density of inside air,

g is the gravity constant.

In order to provide sufficient airflow, the height of the cooling tower H must be large as
the density difference (ρo – ρi) is not quite large. These towers tend to be very large
both in height (around 200 meters) and in cross-section so that the amount of water to
flow in each tower is also large. Cooling towers are in generally cylindrical (made of
wood) or hyperbolic (made of concrete) shape. The hyperbolic shape of the cooling
tower made of a concrete shell which is critical in heat transfer process occurring within
the cooling tower. These hyperbolic shape cooling towers offer superior structural
strength and resistance to high ambient wind loadings than the cylindrical shape.

Advantages
1. No electrical fan is installed so power saving
2. No corrosion problems
3. Maintenance is low
4. No recirculation of air occurs due to high stack outlet

Disadvantages
1. Huge water flow required.
2. These require a large area.
3. Its performance depends on wind velocity and direction.

Applications

● Power stations
● Oil refineries
● Petrochemical plants
● Natural gas plants