Experimental Study The Influence of Cooling Tower Filler Configuration on Heat Transfer Rate and Simulate Fluid Flow Characteristic

A Cooling Tower is a heat exchanger that cools high-temperature water with air. Heat transfer occurs directly through contact between water and air and dissipates heat into the air or free atmosphere. Heat transfer in cooling towers is strongly influenced by filler configuration and airflow characteristics. In this research, the filler configuration is varied with straight and wavy arrangements; the first variation is straight with an 80° angle arrangement, and the second variation is a straight wave arrangement with an 80° angle arrangement. This research observed the effect of the filler configuration on cooling tower performance, such as heat transfer rate, effectiveness, NTU (Number of Transfer Units), efficiency, and evaporation loss. The experimental results found that the straight waveform combination filler has significant heat transfer effectiveness because the more turbulent the fluid flow, the greater the heat transfer. The heat transfer rate, NTU effectiveness, efficiency, and evaporation loss were highest in the combination of straight wave filler variations with a heat transfer value of 4.56 kW, NTU effectiveness of 3.45, evaporation loss of 0.0056/hour, and efficiency of 53.11%.