Cooling Tower Fans: Which Is Right For Your Application?

29, Apr. 2024

 

Cooling Tower Fans: Which Is Right For Your Application?

Axial Fans Should be the Obvious Choice

Here at Industrial Cooling Solutions Inc., we want all of our customers to have a solid understanding of the different components and assemblies of their cooling tower. In our previous post, we briefly explained the difference between axial fans and centrifugal fans as they relate to industrial cooling towers. In today’s post we are going to continue with this subject, however, we are going to delve a little further into the benefits that axial fans offer for industrial cooling applications. We hope that by the end of this blog you have a better understanding of why axial fans are the best choice in terms of efficiency and productivity. Continue reading below to learn more.

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Save Money and Increase Productivity

When it comes to industrial cooling processes, efficiency is key. The effective mitigation of heat in industrial processes accounts for a large percentage of the energy that many facilities consume. As a result, it is in the best interest of these facilities to make sure that their industrial cooling systems are functioning as well as they possible can. Axial fans help to increase this productivity in multiple ways and below we have listed just a few.

  • Airflow:

    One of the most important variables of an industrial cooling tower is the efficiency of its airflow. Without airflow, cooling towers are unable to dissipate heat as effectively as they are designed to. Proper airflow ensures that the fill material and water system are vented properly, reducing the amount of heat within the entire system. Axial fans help to increase the level of airflow by putting out a large volume of air at a consistent pace. While not as forceful as centrifugal fans, axial fans circulate the air efficiently enough to get the job done.

  • Easier Maintenance:

    While airflow is an important component of a fan system, maintenance is a component that cannot be ignored. Maintenance costs are something that cannot be ignored when it comes to industrial cooling towers. Of the two fan types, axial fans are much easier to maintain because they are not part of a closed system like centrifugal fans. If an axial fan becomes damaged or needs a routine maintenance check they can be quickly analyzed and repaired. Not only does this save money in relation to repair costs, it saves the maintenance worker time as well.

  • Variable Speed:

    One of the greatest advantages of axial fans is the fact that they can be adjusted based on the output needs of the tower. While centrifugal fans can have their speed adjusted, it greatly decreases the amount of airflow that is produced. Axial fans, on the other hand, can be run at a lower speed without having a huge effect on the amount of air that is produced.

If you would like to learn more about our fans please contact us today. At Industrial Cooling Solutions Inc., we are dedicated to providing the best in industrial cooling solutions and we are certain that we can handle any need that you may have.

Cooling Tower Types, Designs, and Classifications

What are common cooling tower designs?

Some of the most common cooling tower designs are listed below:

The rest of this article discusses how cooling towers are further classified. You can learn more about this topic in our online Introduction to Cooling Towers video course.

 

How are cooling towers classified?

Cooling towers can be classified based on several design characteristics. These are:

  • Wet or dry.
  • Mechanical draft or natural draft.
  • Induced, forced or natural draft.
  • Counter flow or cross flow.
  • Direct or indirect (open or closed circuit).

Let’s have a look at each of these classifications in more detail.

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What is the difference between a wet and dry type cooling tower?

A cooling tower that uses liquid as the cooling medium, is a wet cooling tower. A cooling tower that uses air as the cooling medium, is a dry cooling tower. This article focuses upon wet cooling towers as these are the more common types of cooling towers. Wet type cooling towers are easy to identify due to the white plumes of moisture (drift) rising from the towers.

 

What is the difference between a mechanical draft and natural draft cooling tower?

A cooling tower that uses a fan, or multiple fans, is a mechanical draft cooling tower. Cooling towers utilise axial or centrifugal fans. Axial fans are used for large, medium, and small cooling towers. Centrifugal fans are used for medium and small sized cooling towers, but are less common than axial fans.

A cooling tower that has no fans is a natural draft cooling tower. Natural draft cooling towers rely upon the stack effect to obtain movement of air through the tower. Air is heated by the cooling water, and this causes its density to decrease, the warm air then rises above the cool air due to this density difference. In the tower, this means that the warm air moves upwards through the tower whilst cooler air is drawn in at the base. The cycle is continuous and allows a large volume of air to be used to cool the cooling water. Typically, natural draft cooling towers are only used where the cooling demand is high and constant; thermal power stations for example, often use natural draft cooling towers.

 

What are induced, forced, and natural draft cooling towers?

A cooling tower that has a fan installed before the heat exchanger, is known as a forced draft cooling tower. A cooling tower that has a fan installed after the heat exchanger, is known as an induced draft cooling tower. Cooling towers without any fans are natural draft cooling towers. Natural draft cooling towers are very large structures that are easy to identify.

 

What is the difference between a counter flow and cross flow cooling tower?

Counter flow cooling towers force the cooling liquid in the opposite direction to the ambient air. For example, water will flow downwards due to gravity, whilst a fan forces air to flow upwards. The two mediums are thus flowing in opposite directions (180 degrees apart). Cross flow cooling towers force one medium to flow perpendicularly to another, they flow 90 degrees apart relative to each other. For example, air may flow perpendicularly across tubes containing cooling water.

 

What is the difference between a direct and indirect cooling tower?

Direct and indirect cooling towers are also known as open-circuit and closed-circuit cooling towers respectively. If the cooling medium comes into direct contact with the process medium, the tower is a direct type cooling tower. If the cooling medium does not come into direct contact with the process medium, it is an indirect type cooling tower. For example, water being cooled by air is cooled directly, but water in a pipe that is cooled by air is not cooled directly, because the pipe forms a barrier between the air and water.

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