The difference between cross-flow cooling tower and counter-flow cooling tower

Briefly introduce the difference between cross-flow and counter-current towers. Cooling Towers are devices that use water as a circulating coolant to absorb heat from a system and discharge it into the atmosphere to lower the water temperature. The cold is used to exchange steam and air for cold and heat exchange to produce steam. The steam volatilization removes the heat to the principle of evaporative heat dissipation, convection heat transfer and radiation heat transfer to dissipate the waste heat generated in the industrial or refrigeration air conditioner to reduce the water temperature of the evaporative heat sink to ensure the normal operation of the system. Shape, hence the name of the Cooling Tower.

The cooling tower can be divided into a cross-flow cooling tower and a counter-flow cooling tower according to the flow direction of the cooling water and the air. The difference is that the cross-flow cooling tower means that the water flows vertically from the upper part of the tower, and the air flows horizontally through the water. A cooling tower with a mixture of gas and water flow. A counterflow cooling tower is a cooling tower in which the water flow falls vertically in the tower and the direction of the air flow is opposite to the direction of the water flow.




The difference between the cross-flow cooling tower and the counterflow cooling tower

There are many differences between cross-flow cooling towers and counter-flow cooling towers. Structurally speaking, the air inlet of the cross-flow cooling tower is on the side, generally covering the entire side, while the inlet of the counter-flow cooling tower is at the bottom of the tower, which can be double-sided air inlet or four-sided inlet.
The advantages and disadvantages of cross-flow cooling towers and counter-flow cooling towers are the advantages of cross-flow cooling towers:
1. Simple structure, convenient loading and unloading
2, low head pressure (energy saving)
3. Convenient maintenance, low failure rate and easy maintenance (no rotary water distribution device inside).
4, the heat sink fins are not easy to scale algae, the heat sink fins are easy to clean.
5. When the external air environment is higher than the design environment, other emergency cooling measures (direct spray of tap water, increase of cooling fan, etc.) can be taken.
6, the use of low cost, wide range of dosing, equipment is not easy to produce corrosion, the head pressure required by the motor can be reduced.

Disadvantages of cross-flow cooling towers:
1. The efficiency is relatively low relative to the counterflow, and the same refrigeration cold tonnage requires a larger cabinet and floor space.
2. The water consumption is slightly more.

The biggest difference between a crossflow cooling tower and a counterflow cooling tower is low noise.

Counterflow cooling tower advantages
1. The floor space is small, and the same volumetric efficiency is slightly higher than that of the cross flow type (the water is more evenly dispersed by the mechanical movement on the heat dissipation fins to improve the unit heat dissipation efficiency of the heat dissipation fins).
2. It can produce a larger water temperature difference than the cross flow type.

Disadvantages of counterflow cooling towers:
1. The internal mechanism is complicated, the internal rotating water distributor is prone to failure, and the maintenance is inconvenient after the failure.
2. It is easier to produce algae and silt, which is easy to cause blockage of the water distributor and higher requirements for sterilization and algae removal.
3. The requirements for dosing are high. The internal rotation mechanism except the pipeline is metal.
4. The water head pressure requirement is high and the pump configuration requirements are high.
5. The efficiency decays quickly, and the subsequent cooling rate decays faster.

Note: Countercurrent type is mostly used for circular cooling towers, and cross flow type is mostly used for square cooling towers! Although there are many differences between the two types of cooling towers, there is no difference between them. Users should consider them according to the actual situation.