Cooling tower -- hot and cold water tanks

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the use of hot and cold water tanks in open circuit cooling towers, specifically in an aluminum casting workshop. The cold water tank, approximately 350 m³, is essential for receiving water from the cooling tower and regulating system fill levels. The warm water tank, also around 350 m³, may serve surge purposes or provide suction head for pumps. The cooling water flow rate is noted at 450 m³/hr, indicating the system's capacity to handle fluctuations in flow and pressure.

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Engineers, project managers, and technicians involved in industrial cooling systems, particularly those working with aluminum casting processes and fluid management in cooling towers.

BenjaminSa
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Hi
In some projects, I saw that hot and cold water tanks have been used for open circuit cooling towers. What is the need to use these tanks?
 
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Can you give some links to the projects you saw? We need to understand the kind of project you're asking about.
 
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There has to be a cold water tank to receive what's coming out of the tower and regulate the fill level of the system. But I'm not sure why you would need a warm water tank.
 
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russ_watters said:
There has to be a cold water tank to receive what's coming out of the tower and regulate the fill level of the system. But I'm not sure why you would need a warm water tank.
maybe for surge purposes.
 
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anorlunda said:
Can you give some links to the projects you saw? We need to understand the kind of project you're asking about.
The cooling tower unit is used for the aluminum casting workshop
And the tanks were made of concrete
cold water tank: about 350 m3
warm water tank: about 350 m3
cooling water flow: 450 m3/hr
 
Chestermiller said:
maybe for surge purposes.
Can you explain more?
 
BenjaminSa said:
Can you explain more?
A surge tank is used to mitigate flow rate- and pressure fluctuations in a continuous flow process.
 
Chestermiller said:
maybe for surge purposes.
Sure, that's why it is done on the cool(downstream) side. When you turn on/off the tower, the tower fills/empties, so that water has to come from/go somewhere. But I can't envision a surge need on the upstream side. Can you think of something specific?
 
If the water includes chemical treatments, it may be that they want to capture and reuse the water if the tower has to be drained for maintenance purposes. Two tanks just to allow gravity drain?
 
  • #10
Is the hot water pumped into the tower? If so, maybe the hot tank is simply to provide suction head for the pump?

A sketch of the configuration would help.
 
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  • #11
Not the OP, but here's a typically cooling tower piping diagram with one surge tank (the tower basin):

Nd9GcRyrREENe2vprloja6vSR7aa01dToF1rVLgoA&usqp=CAU.png
 
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  • #12
Aha, that makes more sense, pump the cooler water using the tower basin for pump suction.
 
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