Description
This low-maintenance, bench-mounting product contains a heated water tank, a pump, a ducted fan and an instrument panel. Each cooling column fits securely to the heated water tank.
An electronic controller ensures a constant heated water temperature throughout the tests. The centrifugal pump delivers the heated water to a spray nozzle at the top of the column. The water sprays into the column, passing over ‘packing’ inside the column and returning to the heated water tank. The fan directs air upwards through the column in counterflow to the water, extracting the heat. Electronic sensors measure the air and water flow, humidity, pressures and temperatures at key points, shown on clear, multi-line displays. This gives all measurements needed to understand the evaporative cooling tower operation. Controls for the fan and water circuits allow the students to adjust the flow rates for a full range of experiments. A clear tube above the heated water tank allows the user to measure the water lost to evaporation.
The Cooling Towers apparatus comes with one tower as standard, for base experimentation. For comparison and additional experiments, TecQuipment offers four optional cooling columns.
Each column is of high-grade clear acrylic material. This allows the user to see the complete process including the water distribution and packing arrangement.
The equipment does not need a computer, as the displays show all the measurements. However, TecQuipment has included the powerful VDAS® inside the product. When connected to a suitable computer, VDAS® collects and displays accurate, real-time data quickly and easily. It also displays live psychrometric charts.
Key features:
- Includes TecQuipment’s Versatile Data Acquisition System (VDAS®) for live displays of air temperatures and relative humidity using a psychrometric chart
- Measures evaporated water loss for a complete understanding of the cooling process
- Three optional interchangeable columns containing different packing densities and arrangements
- One optional interchangeable column with no packing to demonstrate free-fall cooling
- All columns have clear sides for a full view of the heat transfer process
- Variable water and air flow controls to maximize heat transfer experiments
Learning outcomes
How key variables affect the performance of a cooling tower, including:
- Variation of water flow rate
- Variation of air flow rate
- Packing density and arrangement
- Variation of water temperature
- Energy and mass balance
