This Single Cell BAC Cross Flow cooling tower had damaged fill media caused by excessive water temperature being returned to the cooling tower from the process heat exchangers.
The distorted fill media and integral drift eliminators resulted in water channeling through the damaged section of fill media and also resulted in excessive drift loss due to the damaged drift eliminators. In addition most of the spray nozzle dispersion discs were damaged or missing resulting in inadequate water coverage over the fill media.
Cooling capacity was reduced by approximately 30% and the process had to be shut-down due to lack of cooling capacity.
The maximum continuous operating temperatures for fill media in cross-flow cooling towers is 120 F (49 C) and the fill can tolerate temperature excursions of up to 5 F (3 C) if kept to 1 hour or less providing the fill is also properly supported. PVC heat deflection temperature per ASTM-D648 occurs at 160 F (@ 264 psi (71 C @ 1820 kPa).
The damaged fill media was removed and replaced with new self-supporting Brentwood ACCU-PAC XF75-015 mechanically assembled herringbone style modular film fill with integral drift eliminators specifically designed to replace OEM hung cross flow fill sheets.
Due to high air velocities an additional set of Brentwood XF150Max drift eliminators were installed. All work was performed in two days over a week-end and was completed on time and within budget.
