Industrial Processes usually produces a lot of heat. Air-conditioning also removes heat from
indoor areas through heat exchangers.Where does all heat go?
All these heat has to be removed. If you are not near sea, you have to use cooling towers to cool down your warm water.
Cooling towers make use of air currents to cool warm water. However, a basic rule has to be made when you want to extract heat from any object, including water. Heat has to be taken from a higher temperature source to a lower temperature medium.
If air is already warm, it will not be able to cool down warm water. The temperature difference is very important.
Another important point in cooling tower efficiency is how much water is exposed to air. If water is allowed to trickle down, and their contact surface with air is made large, more heat exchange takes place.
Plastic diffusers designed with wavy patterns are inserted at cooling towers to increase contact surfaces of water when it meets with cooling air stream.
There are several shapes of cooling towers, but they operate on same principle.
There are basically 2 types airflow patterns in cooling towers:
The cross-flow type of cooling tower makes use of air flowing at right angles to water dropping down. The fans are positioned so that air stream flows through cooling tower from sides. Water is distributed at top, and is allowed to drip down to meet with air.
