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Appendix A
Cooling tower

A 1. EES program to calculate cooling tower performance

{This program simulates the behavior of a cooling tower. The tower coefficients n and c
have to be specified. Ambient temperatures, water inlet temperature and air and water
flow rates have to be specified. Calculated is the water outlet temperature, the exhaust air
properties and and the evaporation rate of water.}

"********************************************************************"
"INPUT OF PARAMETERS"

"CONSTANT PROPERTIES"
"atmospheric pressure, assumed constant"
patm=14.7 "[psia]"
"specific heat of water, assumed to be constant"
cpw=SpecHeat(Water,T=85,P=patm) "[BTU/lb*F]"
"density of water, assumed to be constant"
"density of water"
dens=1/Volume (Water,T=85,p=patm) "[lb/ft^3]"

"TOWER COEFFICIENTS"
c=2.266
n=-0.2567

"AMBIENT AND TOWER OPERATION PARAMETERS"

Vwat=110924 "[gpm]"
"mass flow rate of water per cell"
mwat_in1=Vwat*0.1337*60*dens/7 "[lb/hr]"
"volumetric air flow rate"
Vair1=1.23e6 "[ft^3/min]"
"water inlet temperature"
Twat_in1=115 "[F]"

"air dry bulb temperature"

Tdb_in1=85 "[F]"

"air wet bulb temperature"

Twb_in1=65 "[F]"
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"****************************************************************"
"PERFORMANCE CALCULATION"

"AIR PROPERTIES"
"specific volume of air"
vsp_in1=Volume(AirH2O,T=Tdb_in1,P=patm,B=Twb_in1) "[ft^3/lb]"
"mass flow rate of air"
mair1=Vair1/vsp_in1*60 "[lbm/hr]"
"air inlet enthalpy"
hair_in1=Enthalpy(AirH2O,T=Tdb_in1,P=patm,B=Twb_in1) "[BTU/lb]"
"specific heat of air, assumed to be constant in calculation"
cpa1=SpecHeat(AirH2O,T=Tdb_in1,P=patm,B=Twb_in1) "BTU/lb*F"
"Enthalpy of saturated air"
hwin1=Enthalpy(AirH2O,T=Twat_in1,P=patm,R=1)
hwout1=Enthalpy(AirH2O,T=Twat_out1,P=patm,R=1)
"effective specific heat"
cs1=(hwin1-hwout1)/(Twat_in1-Twat_out1)
"inlet humidity ratio"
win1=HumRat(AirH2O,T=Tdb_in1,P=patm,B=Twb_in1)

"WATER PROPERTIES"
"relations to calculate range and approach"
Twat_in1=Twb_in1+appr1+range1 "[F]"
Twat_out1=Twb_in1+appr1 "[F]"

"EFFECTIVENESS CALCULATION OF THE TOWER"

"equivalent capacitance ratio"
mstar1=mair1*cs1/(mwat_in1*cpw)
"effectiveness from effectiveness-Ntu relation"
eff1=1/mstar1*(1-exp(-mstar1*(1-exp(-Ntu1))))
"Ntu relation"
Ntu1=c*(mwat_in1/mair1)^(1+n)

"HEAT EXCHANGE FOR ALL STREAMS"

Q1=eff1*mair1*(hwin1-hair_in1)
Q1=cpw*(mwat_in1*Twat_in1-mwat_out1*Twat_out1)
Q1=mair1*(hair_out1-hair_in1)

"MASS BALANCE"
"water side mass balance"
mwat_in1-mwat_out1=mair1*(wout1-win1)
"percent evaporation"
dm1=(mwat_in1-mwat_out1)/mwat_out1*100 "[%]"
"effective surface humidity ratio and enthalpy"
hair_eff1=hair_in1+(hair_out1-hair_in1)/(1-exp(-Ntu1))
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w_eff1=HumRat(AirH2O,H=hair_eff1,P=patm,R=1)
wout1=w_eff1+(win1-w_eff1)*exp(-Ntu1)
"air outlet states"
hair_out1=Enthalpy(AirH2O,T=Tdb_out1,P=patm,w=wout1)
Twb_out1=WetBulb(AirH2O,T=Tdb_out1,P=patm,w=wout1)
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A 2 TRNYS Type 51 Cooling tower

The source code of the TRNSYS cooling tower type is not shown here as it was not
developed for this work. However a short description of the paramers, inputs and outpurs
of the TRNSYS type 51, cooling tower will be given in the following.

Parameters:

Parameter No. Description

1 Mode for tower characteristics

It can be specified, whether to enter the tower coefficients or to supply

a file that contains measured performance data. If a data file is
supplied, the tower routine calculates the tower coefficients from this
data. In the simulation used for the present work a data file will be
supplied.

2 Flow geometry

Counterflow or crossflow can be specified, the towers at the Columbia

Station are of crossflow type

3 Number of tower cells

A maximum of eight tower cells can be specified. As there is no

measurement of individual tower cells available, all tower cells are
treated as if they perform equally. Therefore the calculations are done
for only one tower cell for each tower and the overall performance is
calculated by multiplying the single flow rate with the number of cells

4 Volumetric air flow rate for a single cell

The air flow rate is obtained from the performance test

5 Power requirement for each fan associated with the maximum

volumetric air flow rate.

As there is only one fan speed and the towers are always run at
maximum air flow rate, the power requirement is equal to the fan
power measured in the performance test

6 Air volumetric flow rate below which cell fan is off

This air flow rate defines the air flow rate associated with natural
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convection in the tower, that means if no fans are operated. As this

does not happen in the actual operation mode, a value of zero is
assumed

7 Sump volume

The volume of the tower sump is needed to calculate transient tower

behavior. In this analysis the sump volume is assumed to be zero, as
the simulation is done on an hourly basis and the sump volume does
not have a significant influence on the transient tower behavior

8 Initial temperature of tower sump

As the sump volume is assumed to be zero, the value for this parameter
is not significant

If the cooling tower routine is used in that way that a performance dat file is supplied
(see parameter 1) parameters 9 and 10 are spedified in the following way.

9 FORTRAN logical unit number that describes where the performance

data file is found that is needed to calculate the tower coefficients

10 Number of data points in the performance file

The format of the performance data file can be found in the TRNSYS manual.
Parameters 9 and 10 could also be used to specify the tower coefficients directly, but
this option is not used in the simulation process

11 Print option

This parameter defines, whether the tower coefficients are printed as

output and become accessible.

Inputs

Input No. Description

1 Water inlet temperature

2 Water inlet mass flow rate

3 Air inlet drybulb temperature

4 Air inlet wetbulb temperature

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5 Sump make up water temperature

This temperature specifies the temperature of the make-up water that is

used to compensate for evaporation losses in the tower. As in the actual
tower operation no make-up flow is added to the sump, this
temperature is set equal to the water outlet temperature of the cells.

6 Relative fan speed or fraction of maximum air volumetric flow rate

As the fans are always run at maximum power, that is maximum flow
rate of air, this variable will not be changed through the simulation and
always be equal to one, which corresponds to maximum fan speed.

The parameters and inputs are specified in a TRNSYS deck (see chapter 4.1.1). All the
parameters and inputs supplied the TRNSYS program is able to calculate the outputs that
are needed to for the simulation of the cooling cycle. The outputs calculated are defined
as follows.

Outputs

Output No. Description

1 Temperature of tower sump

In this simulation the tower sump temperature is equal to the tower

outlet temperature.

2 Exit mass flow rate from sump

The cooling tower routine calculates evaporation losses and substracts

those from the inlet mass flow rate. In the system simulation a constant
mass flow rate will be assumed to calculate the mixed plant inlet
temperature, as evaporation losses account for only 2 to 3 % of the
water flow.

3 Fan power requirement

4 Total heat rejection rate from water to air

5 Mixed outlet temperature from tower cells that is the inlet temperature
to the sump.

In the simulation this temperature is equal to the sump temperature as

the sump volume is assumed to be zero.
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6 Water loss rate in units of a mass flow rate

7 Exit air drybulb temperature

8 Exit air wetbulb temperature

9 Exit air humidity ratio

10 Exit air flow rate of dry air

11 Internal energy change of tower sump since the beginning of the

simulation.

As the tower sump volume is assumed to be zero, this output is always

equal to zero.

The outputs that will be used in the system simulation are the water outlet
temperature and the fan power requirement, although the fan power requirement can also
be obtained by simply using the maximum fan power for one fan, as there is only one fan
speed. The water outlet temperature that will be used can either be the sump temperature
or the cell outlet temperature as a sump volume of zero is assumed. As was stated above,
the water flow rate will be assumed to be constant and therefore the exit water flow rate
is not used.

This TRNSYS routine has the capability to read up to 50 operating data points from an
input file and find the tower coefficients by a least square fit. In the simulation for this
work, only two data points for each tower are available from the performance test.