Chilled water distribution system for an urban university campus
- Hattemer, Hornsby and Bailey Consulting Engineers, Montgomery, AL (United States)
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is an urban campus located in downtown Birmingham. The central chilled water system at UAB was constructed in 1972 and 1975 having a nameplate capacity of 14,000 tons. This system provides chilled water service to the 900-bed medical center and the 1,000,000 ft{sup 2} (92,900 m{sup 2}) research complex. In 1988, the University began the planning to increase system chilled water production capacity to meet the continuing growth of the medical research complex. However, before adding capacity, the University wanted to investigate the chronic problem associated with the system: low differential pressure and low system Delta-T. These two problems required the operation of most of Plant No. 1 chiller and system pumps even at low system loads. Hot gas bypass was often required to maintain the 4,000-ton (14,000 kW) chillers in operation. This article describes the investigation and implemented solutions to the problem.
- OSTI ID:
- 488907
- Journal Information:
- ASHRAE Journal, Journal Name: ASHRAE Journal Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 38; ISSN ASHRAA; ISSN 0001-2491
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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