Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations IDS on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Scale on Cooling tower fins

Status
Not open for further replies.

upte1

Mechanical
May 31, 2006
1
Excess build up of white scale on the cooling tower fins? What is the predominant cause?
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

hard water you need a chemical co. to treat your water to get scale off then maintain you water and the proper ph and conductivity levels. Hope yhis answers your question. Its just like owning a swimming pool you have to keep the water treated.
 
If the scale looks to be formed of small globules, and is easy to remove physically (as far as you reach), it is generally magnesium silicate. There are many parameters involved that influence this mechanism. You can reduce the scale forming tendency by chemical treatment. Contact Nalco and the likes.

 
Double check the calibration and blow down point of your T.D.S. meter. When Total Disolved Solids reach 1200-1500 p.p.m. a controller should have energized a blow down solenoid. If the solenoid is malfuntioning or the line is plugged up the solids will continue to build, this not only affects cooling tower capacity but will also foul any heat exchangers in that system. One why to identify a fouled condenser is to look at the approach and the delta t on the water side. High approaches with a small delta t could be an idication that the tubes are fouled. The approach of the cooling tower is also a good way to see how well your tower is rejecting heat. Just a few things to consider.

I'm not a real engineer, but I play one on T.V.
A.J. Gest, York Int.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor