Film fill fouling in counterflow cooling towers: Research results
- Marley Cooling Tower Co., Mission, KS (United States)
High-efficiency cross-corrugated PVC film packing materials, first introduced in the US for new counterflow cooling tower products in the 1970`s, have in a number of instances recently been used to improve the thermal performance of older splash and flat-sheet-filled counterflow towers. These highly interfaced PVC packs in new tower and retrofit service have been applied in a variety of circumstances and conditions. In some locations raw waters have fouled packs. This fouling process can, if left unchecked, reverse performance gains from the tower upgrade and add substantially to cooling tower structural loadings. This paper details a significant effort to understand and reproduce that primary fouling mechanism in a controlled and accelerated laboratory regimen, and to conduct equal basis comparative fouling tests on a number of fill configurations to optimize geometry. These efforts proceeded in specially constructed lab cells which did not risk customer tower installations while defining optimum fill design features. Considerable effort went into evaluating their customers` descriptions of field fouling and to duplicate field observations in the lab process. Field low-clog fill testing results are correlated with lab results. Many alternative fill shapes, spacings, texturings, support schemes, and materials are compared here in order to define the best geometry for the end user. Water conditions, particularly biological characterization and the relation of any circulating water biopotential to suspended solids concentration are discussed because of their specific causal relation in pack fouling. Low-Clog fill application criteria are established. Water treatment needs are discussed. Washing of existing fouled packing is also considered. Finally, a laboratory method for thermal comparison of various packs in fouled condition is described.
- OSTI ID:
- 82980
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940222--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Pilot scale cooling tower fouled fill treatment: AFCATT (Anti-Fouling Chemical Additive Test Tower)
AFCATT (Anti-Fouling Chemical Additive Test Tower)