The investigation of cooling tower packing in various arrangements

The effect of form with corrugated packing on mass transfer and pressure drop characteristics in atmospheric cooling towers has been studied experimentally. The results showed that the mass transfer coefficient decreased with increase in packing pitch and increase in the ratio of rib pitch to rib height. Friction factors were expressed by a dimensional equation which included pitch and distance between the packings, for both smooth and rough surfaces. From these results, the relationship between packing mass transfer coefficient and pressure drop was deduced. The correlations were verified with additional experimental data taken with 1.1 < PID < 1.70 and 1 less than or equal to p/e less than or equal to 5. This provides a useful semiexperimental relation, in an area generally lacking in design and performance data. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.