Cooling tower De-Icing problems

[crueltobekind]

Currently, the only system for de-icing is the reverse the fan for a while. is there other methods of reducing/avoiding ice buildup on the baffles?

 

[willard3]

Is this an open or closed cooling tower?

open = open to atmosphere with fluid to be cooled
closed = closed to atmosphere with fluid being cooled

 

[crueltobekind]

its an open cooling tower

 

[IRstuff]

Per SAE AIR 1168-4 Ice, Rain, Fog, and Frost Protection, some options are:
> some sort of antifreeze or fluid flow over the baffles
> some sort of heating applied to or embedded in the baffles
> reducing the air flow over the baffles

TTFN
faq731-376

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[crueltobekind]

thanks

 

[dougarthur42]

I don't think you can avoid ice buildup in cold climates. I work in Maine and we run our cooling tower summer and winter and it ices up in winter. All comments above are good ideas. We shut down our fans and just let the hot(75*) water break up the ice with not much air flow. Another way is that we raise our tower basin level a few inches, say from 50" to 57" the risen level of hot water shocks the ice above and fracture it. There is always manual labor with sledge hammers and pick poles, not much fun but it works i know from personal experience.
this is a great site.
Doug

 

[crueltobekind]

Thanks a lot Doug. yea i couldn't really find much in the way of solutions either, all we do is reverse the fan every couple of hours.