Yuping Wang
Academic Specialist
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Getting to Know Cooling Towers
Chilled water is needed in many thermal systems, from large industrial plants to small HVAC units, to help discharge the waste heat. Cooling towers, which can provide a continuous supply of chilled water, also vary in size and are employed in various applications. Those commonly seen are the large hyperboloid concrete structures in a powerplant or smaller metal device on a rooftop. In this project, students in ME 412 are expected to understand the operation of cooling towers through two parts of work. For the major part, each team will design, build, analyze, and test a small-scale simple cooling tower. The objective is to provide sufficient cooling to a warm water stream.
For the secondary part, each team will choose a specific type of cooling water supply unit and conduct a review on its design, application, technology, operation, and performance. On the testing day, a testing station with instrumentations for flow and temperature measurements will be available and each team will have 15 minutes to set up, demonstrate, and test their device. In addition, they will also prepare a PowerPoint slideshow or video clip for the audience to explain their design decisions, fabrication, operation and analysis of their device.
Competitive Schedule
| Time | Station | Team Members |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | A | Kyle Anulare, William Cilia, Katie McMillan, Spencer Stefani |
| B | Al Hezam Aiyash, Amber Bliven, Jake Cuffaro, Greg Koenigsknecht | |
| 8:15 | A | Bill Altier, Joseph Deschaine, Richard Lin, Abdulhamid Salem |
| B | Evan Backer, Jack Beison, Kyle Hellems, Peter Phan, Kyle Zerafa | |
| 8:30 | A | Parker Morris, Ryan Peters, Sophie Weitzel, Lesheng Zeng |
| B | Frederick Bruner, Parker Grover, Tommy McGowan, Mark Zummallen | |
| 8:45 | A | Connor Anderson, Aidan Dettweiler, Ethan Keppy, Zihan Zhang |
| B | Cameron Dork, Jaclyn Duff, Connor Laubach, Lucas Russell, Trent Treppa | |
| 9:00 | A | Jahzeel Alcantar Gallegos, Nick Crane, Michael Gertley, Andrew Pieper |
| B | Gianna Andriacchi, Justin de Coster, Charley Jiang, Evan Lamb, Zhe Liu | |
| 9:15 | A | Ali Mohammed Al Brahim, Nathaniel Clarke, Patrick Marchal, Nick Montpas |
| B | Dylan Gumbinger, Austin Lowien, Aisyah Mahira, Tung Nguyen | |
| 9:30 | A | Ryan Bartlett, Faith Call, Henry Horak, Noah Moyer, Meghan Parkinson |
| B | Jacob Cristofori, Sarthak Gupta, Saeha Lederle, Joe Watza | |
| 9:45 | A | Thomas Burgess, Eric Douglas, Van Duong, Mitchell Essenmacher, Connor Trask |
| B | Alejandro Castillo, Keerthi Kothapally, Jeffrey Li, Anjali Patel, Jihoon Song | |
| 10:00 | A | Jennifer Blowers, John DiBella, Julia Fox, Jonathon Lewis, Thomas Supal |
| B | Bashhar Byrouthy, Sean Cornellier, Kailey Head, Jack Konitsney | |
| 10:15 | A | Beth Caldwell, Atticus Crimmins, Eric Ernvall, Daniel Vance, Zach White |
| B | Jeremy Balzer, Nathan Kowalski, Tung Nguyen, Cole Treece | |
| 10:30 | A | Erin Chynoweth, Jacob Demski, Bryn Dittmar, Miguel Jarquin-Lopez, Maddy McKown |
| B | Seth Gower, Rob Paquette, Donnie Schuster, Alex York | |
| 10:45 | A | Erik Liu, Tyler Marshall, Suven Sinha, Stephen Tamboer |
| B | Matthew Davidson, Alex Feige, Luke Willemsen, Paul Williamson | |
| 11:00 | A | Dino Iovtchev, Anthony Pero, Shamit Topiwala, Tommy Wierzbicki |