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Cooling towers are heat removal devices used
to transfer process waste heat to the atmosphere.
Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of
water to remove process heat and cool the working
fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or rely
solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the
dry-bulb air temperature. Common applications
include cooling the circulating water used in oil
refineries, chemical plants, power plants and
building cooling. The towers vary in size from small
roof-top units to very large hyperboloid structures
(as in Image 1) that can be up to 200 metres tall
and 100 metres in diameter, or rectangular
structures (as in Image 2) that can be over 40
metres tall and 80 metres long. Smaller towers are
normally factory-built, while larger ones are
constructed on site. |
