Simulation of Cooling Towers using Matlab

can Matlab be used to simulate fluid flow and convective heat transfer through the cooling tower?. If yes, How?

Answer 1

[Yifeng Tang]

A quick answer is yes.

The main challenge I think is the find a correlation that works for YOUR cooling tower. The info in the following links may be helpful:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0017931019341791?via%3Dihub

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/evaporation-water-surface-d_690.html

Once you pick a correlation, you may use MATLAB or Simscape (I would recommend this) to model the evaporation and heat transfer.

With MATLAB, you should be able to perform steady-state calculation for evaporation rate and heat transfer, given fixed inputs like air temperature and humdity, water temperature and flow rate, etc. You will need to get a saturation table for water as you will need it in the correlations, as well as physical properties like specific heats.

With Simscape, you can model components like pump, take, and valves. The Moist Air property and liquid property are readily available. You will need to write a custom Simscape block for the evaporation process though. The simulation will be transient in nature.