Computational Fluid Dynamics of Air in Forced Draft Counter Flow Wet Cooling Tower: Using Comsol Multi-Physics

Abstract

A cooling tower is a type of heat exchanger that uses air contact and water evaporation to chill water. The Port Harcourt refinery will be used as a case study in this paper's computational fluid dynamics CFD analysis of air flow in mechanical draft wet cooling towers. To achieve this, the CFD analysis of air under low Re-K-e flow conditions was done in Comsol Multi-Physics interface, The tower's schematic was created on AutoCAD. The results of the air's CFD analysis showed that the distribution profiles of velocity, temperature, relative humidity, and pressure inside the cooling tower are consistent with the air's postulated and calculated characteristics. AutoCAD was used to draw the schematic of the tower. The CFD analysis of air revealed that the velocity, temperature, relative humidity and pressure distribution profiles within the cooling tower are in accord with postulated and calculated characteristic of air within the Cooling Tower.