Cooling Tower : What is a cooling tower? A cooling tower is designed to remove heat from a building/machine or facility by spraying water down through the tower to exchange heat into the inside of the building. Air comes in from the sides of the tower and passes through the falling water. What is the cooling principle of cooling tower? Evaporative cooling towers, or cooling towers are devices which make use of a natural principle which is as simple as it is effective: the forced evaporation of a minimum quantity of water, compared to the main mass, takes place by the dissipation of heat from the mass itself; the mass, therefore, cools down (latent heat of evaporation) How do Cooling Towers work? Exploiting the latent heat of evaporation Evaporative cooling towers are able to best realise the water/air heat exchange process: evaporation is forced through the use of simple, effective components which normally require minimum maintenance. To better understand how heat dissipation occurs, two concepts need to be introduced. Sensible heat. This is the amount of heat energy that is added to, or subtracted from, a physical element (such as louvers) to change its temperature. Latent heat. This is basically founded on the change of state that a substance can undergo as a result of heat addition or loss. In the case of water, it can change from a liquid phase to a solid phase (ice) if heat is removed when it reaches freezing point. It can also change from a liquid phase to a gaseous phase (vapour) if heat is added when it reaches boiling point. Latent heat is therefore defined as heat that is introduced or removed to change the state of the water. Specifically, in evaporative cooling systems, it is defined as latent heat of evaporation. A well-designed evaporative tower is able to provide the water with as much air contact surface area as possible, in order to optimise the latent heat exchange. To make this heat exchange possible, the evaporative tower must therefore be able to offer a very high air/water contact surface. This is achieved by means of a heat exchange surface, specifically designed for the purpose, and a fan able to move a defined volume of air according to precisely defined parameters. We will now look at the importance of these internal components in detail.