Experiment and numerical study on thermal performance of counterflow wet cooling tower filled with double S-wave packing

The packing is the core heat transfer unit in the cooling tower. To improve the heat and mass transfer performance of the counterflow wet cooling tower, a new double S-wave structure packing is proposed in this paper, and its performance in heat-mass exchange is investigated using a combination of numerical simulation and experiment. The flow heat transfer performance of the double S-wave packing with different sheet spacing, tilt angle and inlet area is studied by numerical simulation, and the law of different structural parameters affecting the packing is derived to determine its optimal structure. The thermal and resistance performance of double S-wave packing and conventional double-folded packing under different working conditions were studied in comparison with each other by building an experimental bench. The results show that the cooling efficiency of double S-wave packing is 13.74% higher and the pressure drop is 3.58% lower than that of double-folded packing. The research results can provide important guidance and reference for engineering practice.