Energy Conversion and Management 42 (2001) 783±789

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On the optimum sizing of cooling towers

M.S. S
oylemez *
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Gaziantep, P.O. Box 300, 27310 Gaziantep, Turkey
Received 31 May 2000; accepted 27 October 2000

Abstract
The optimum heat and mass transfer area at which minimum cost exists throughout the technical life of
forced draft counter-current cooling towers is studied in the present work. Original formulae are developed
and presented for the best thermoeconomical performance as a design point. Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.
All rights reserved.

Keywords: Thermoeconomics; Cooling tower; Heat and mass transfer area; Optimization

1. Introduction

Thermoeconomic optimization of cooling towers is studied in the present work. Optimum

sizing of the cooling towers is studied, and an iterational optimization technique is developed. An
optimum heat and mass transfer area for best operating condition is determined as a result. It is
shown that the life cycle costs of the cooling tower is a minimum at this critical point. Although
there exist previous studies in the current literature about optimization of cooling towers [1±9], all
of these studies are not suciently well detailed. At the beginning, the optimum water to air mass
¯ow rate ratio is determined. The water ¯ow rate is assumed to be constant as a design re-
quirement. The optimum mass ¯ow rate of air is then calculated, using these two speci®ed values.
Certain design values are treated as constants, yielding a lower number of unknowns in the op-
timization study. Pressure drop per unit height of the cooling tower is assumed initially at the
beginning of the iterations, since it depends upon two basic variables, the water loading and air
loading per unit tower cross-sectional area for each di€erent type of eliminator. The optimum heat
and mass transfer area is then determined iteratively via use of the ®nal iterated value of the
pressure drop. The ®nal iterated value of the optimum heat and mass transfer area is obtained

*
Tel.: +90-342-360-1200; fax: +90-342-360-1100.
E-mail address: sait@alpha.bim.gantep.edu.tr (M.S. SoÈylemez).

0196-8904/01/$ - see front matter Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 9 6 - 8 9 0 4 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 4 8 - 5
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oylemez / Energy Conversion and Management 42 (2001) 783±789

Nomenclature

a eliminator characteristics (mÿ1 )

A cross section area of cooling tower (m2 )
Af fan exit area (m2 )
Af;opt optimum fan exit area (m2 )
Ai heat and mass transfer area (m2 )
Ai;opt optimum heat and mass transfer area (m2 )
Aopt optimum cross section area of cooling tower (m2 )
Ca;sat speci®c heat of saturated air (J/kg K)
CE present price of electricity ($/kW h)
CX area independent ®rst cost of cooling tower ($)
CV ®rst cost of cooling tower per unit volume ($/m3 )
C1 constant used in Eq. (21) due to type of eliminator
C2 constant used in Eq. (20) due to type of eliminator
d market discount (interest) rate (decimal)
D other costs of system ($)
G air loading level (kg/m2 s)
G0 reference air loading level (kg/m2 s)
H allowable cooling tower height (m)
IC initial cost of cooling tower ($)
i energy price rate (decimal)
ii;1 enthalpy of saturated air at basin temperature (J/kg)
ii;2 enthalpy of saturated air at tower temperature (J/kg)
K coecient of friction due to type of eliminator
L water loading level (kg/m2 s)
L0 reference water loading level (kg/m2 s)
ma air rate of ¯ow (kg/s)
MS ratio of annual maintenance and operating expenditures to original ®rst cost
mw water ¯ow rate (kg/s)
N technical life of cooling tower (years)
n1±5 constants due to type of eliminators
NTU number of transfer units
OC total present value of operational cost throughout life cycle ($)
P1 ratio of total life cycle net cost of system to ®rst yearÕs cost
P2 economic factor
R ratio of water to air mass ¯ow rates (kg/kg)
RV ratio of resale value to original ®rst cost
S annual total operation time (h)
Thw dimensionless correction factor
TC present value of total costs of tower throughout life cycle ($)
V volume of cooling tower (m3 )
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oylemez / Energy Conversion and Management 42 (2001) 783±789 785

Vopt optimum value of volume of cooling tower (m3 )

DTw temperature di€erential of water across cooling tower (K)
Greeks
e e€ectiveness of cooling tower
eopt optimum value of e€ectiveness of cooling tower
gf eciency of the cooling fan
gm eciency of fan motor
q density of ambient air entering fan (kg/m3 )

after a few iterations. The P1 ±P2 method [10] is used in the optimization study. The list of design
values includes the present price of electrical energy, energy price rate, market discount (interest)
rate, technical life of the cooling tower, characteristics of the eliminator, allowable height of the
cooling tower, number of annual operating hours, density of ambient air, eciencies of the fan
and motor, and volume dependent ®rst cost of the cooling tower.

2. Formulation of the problem

Cooling towers of forced draft type are a mixed type of heat exchangers in fact. Performances
of cooling towers can be predicted by a signi®cant parameter, i.e. the value of e€ectiveness. The
e€ectiveness of the cooling tower depends upon the water to air mass ¯ow rate ratio and the
number of transfer units mainly. In the ®rst part of this study, the optimum e€ectiveness of
the cooling tower is determined and, so, the optimum mass ¯ow rate of air. The e€ectiveness of
the counter-current forced draft cooling tower is

1 ÿ eNTU…Rÿ1†
eˆ …1†
1 ÿ R eNTU…Rÿ1†
Since NTU and R are independent variables, the optimization must be done by using a multi-
variable optimization method [11] as
o…e† o…e†
R ‡ NTU ˆ0 …2†
o…NTU† o… R†

It is shown algebraically that Eq. (2) can be satis®ed if and only if R ˆ 1. For this case, the value
of R for the optimum e€ectiveness condition is [12]:
ma Ca;sat
Rˆ ˆ 1:0 …3†
mw Cw
The optimum air ¯ow rate will then be:

mw Cw mw Cw DTw
ma;opt ˆ ˆ …4†
Ca;sat ii;2 ÿ ii;1
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oylemez / Energy Conversion and Management 42 (2001) 783±789

The right-hand side of Eq. (4) is all constant design values. On the other hand, the heat and mass
transfer area of a cooling tower may be formulated as:
    
Ai Ai V Ai
ˆ ˆ H ˆ aH …5†
A V A V
and so:
Ai
Aˆ …6†
aH
The power requirement of the cooling tower fan can be determined by multiplying the pressure
drop with the air volume ¯ow rate [13] as:
h i
2
m3a a2 H 2 …6:5 ‡ K † ‡ 2… A=Af †
Pˆ …7†
2q2 A2i gf gm
The present value of the cost of operation of the cooling tower throughout its technical life,
depending on the heat and mass transfer area, can be formulated by means of the P1 ±P2 method
practically as follows:
h i
CE P1 m3a a2 H 2 S 6:5 ‡ K ‡ 2… A=Af †2
OC ˆ ‡D …8†
2q2 A2i gf gm
The initial cost of the cooling tower is:
IC ˆ CV AH ‡ CX …9†
The present value of the total cost of the cooling tower throughout its technical life is:
h i
CE P1 m3a a2 H 2 S 6:5 ‡ K ‡ 2… A=Af †2
TC ˆ IC ‡ OC ˆ CV AH ‡ CX ‡ ‡D …10†
2q2 A2i gf gm
The optimum value of the heat and mass transfer area can be determined by taking the de-
rivative of the total cost function with respect to the heat and mass transfer area and then setting
this equation to zero as in the following equation.
o…TC†
ˆ0 …11†
o…Ai †
The optimum heat and mass transfer area then can be calculated with the aid of Eq. (12).
v
h i
u
u
3 CE P1 m a H S 6:5 ‡ K ‡ 2… A=Af †
3 3 2 2
t a
Ai;opt ˆ …12†
q2 gf gm CV

This is exactly a minimum cost point since the second derivative of the total cost function is
always greater than zero. The P1 and P2 values are de®ned by the following:
 M.S. S
oylemez / Energy Conversion and Management 42 (2001) 783±789 787
 (  N )
1 1‡i
P1 ˆ 1ÿ ; i 6ˆ d …13†
d ÿi 1‡d

N
Pi ˆ if i ˆ d …14†
1‡i
ÿN
P2 ˆ 1 ‡ P1 MS ÿ RV …1 ‡ d† …15†
where MS is the ratio of the annual maintenance and operation cost to the original ®rst cost, RV is
the ratio of the resale value to the ®rst cost, i is the fuel price rate, d is the market discount
(interest) rate and N is the technical life. P2 can be assumed as unity for this application. K can be
determined iteratively, since it depends on the water and the air loadings in the cooling tower. K
may be assumed to be 3.5 initially at the beginning of the iteration. Then, the actual value of K can
be determined by using the optimized value of area for calculating the air and water loadings with
the help of the following equations in sequence:
Ai;opt
Vopt ˆ …16†
a
Vopt
Aopt ˆ …17†
H
A
Af;opt ˆ …18†
… A=Af †
ma
Gˆ …19†
A
mw
Lˆ …20†
A
 n4  n5
L G
K ˆ C2 …21†
L0 G0
The iteration ends when the actual (®nally iterated) value of K is determined. The value of NTU
is obtained by means of Eq. (22) as:
 n1  n2
L G
NTU ˆ C1 H …Thw †n3 …22†
L0 G0
and the optimum value of the e€ectiveness can be established by the following equation:
NTU
eopt ˆ …23†
NTU ‡ 1

3. Results and discussion

The results obtained from the present optimization technique are compared with the actual
sizes of two sample cooling towers. In the ®rst example, a bench top cooling tower, illustrated in
Ref. [14], is considered with the following speci®cations: a ˆ 110 mÿ1 , ma ˆ 0:06 kg/s, CE ˆ 0:1 $/
788 M.S. S
oylemez / Energy Conversion and Management 42 (2001) 783±789

Fig. 1. E€ect of heat and mass transfer area on the costs of cooling tower.

kW h, N ˆ 30 years, S ˆ 16 000 h, q ˆ 1:2 kg/m3 , gf ˆ gm ˆ 0:8, CV ˆ 750 $/m3 and …A=Af † ˆ

2:43. The optimum heat and mass transfer area is calculated as 2.09 m2 , whereas the available heat
and mass transfer area is about 2.42 m2 . This indicates that approximately 15% extra heat and
mass transfer area is used for this speci®c illustrative example. Another optimization result for the
typical cooling tower speci®ed in Ref. [1] is determined as 1917 m2 , but its heat and mass transfer
area, determined by using the method given by Ref. [15], is 972.37 m2 , which indicates that ap-
proximately 50% less heat and mass transfer area was selected. The results of cost calculations for
the various heat and mass transfer areas for this sample are depicted in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 explains the variation of the total life cycle cost of a sample cooling tower. As the heat
and mass transfer area increases, the total cost decreases up to a local minimum point which
corresponds to the optimum heat and mass transfer area. Cooling towers should be designed close
to this minimum cost point beyond which additional heat and mass transfer area is not cost ef-
fective.

4. Summary

Economy is a vital factor and extremely signi®cant in cooling tower operation. The economics
of counter-current forced draft cooling towers is discussed, and practical formulae are presented.
The validity of the optimization formulation is tested and con®rmed with two sample problems.
The present optimization technique seems to be helpful to cooling tower designers and manu-
facturers.

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