Experimental investigation of the heat and mass transfer phenomena in a counterflow wet cooling tower with foam ceramic packing

This article deals with an experimental investigation of coinstantaneous heat and mass transfer phenomena between water and air in a counterflow wet cooling tower filled with a new type packing named "FCP-08.'' The packing consisted of foamed ceramic corrugated board with sine waves, surface retention groove is 1.0m high, and it has a cross-sectional test area of 0.68m x 0.68m. This investigation is focused mainly on the effect of the water-air mass flow ratio on the heat and mass transfer characteristics of the cooling tower, for different inlet water temperatures. The results show that the cooling water range, R, and the cooling tower efficiency, e, decrease with the increase in water-air mass flow ratio, L/G. Meanwhile, the heat rejected by the cooling tower, Q(w), increases with the increase in the water mass flow rate. The cooling characteristic coefficient, K alpha V/L, slightly decreases with the increase in water-air mass flow ratio and the value is obviously higher than that of other packing investigated before. The relationship between the cooling characteristic coefficient and water-air mass flow ratio is obtained by linear fitting. The comparison between the obtained results and those found in the literature for other types of packing indicates that cooling performance of the tower with foam ceramic packing is better.