sparaying water on fins

[vinod68]

Hi Everybody.

I wanted to know if it is advisable to spray water directly on the fins of a large V shaped air cooled condenser or shall i use a celdek evaporative pad before the condenser coils and spray water on the celdek pads.

What could be the advantages and disadvantages of using either of them.

thanks for your help.

 

[ChrisConley]

I have run into this exact scenario (actually I was spraying of the exhaust side of a heat pipe).

I had specified the equipment (indirect evaporative cooling) and the manufacturer of the air handling equipment came back and stated that they had in fact used spray nozzles on coils and heat pipes and found out that regardless of materials used (copper, aluminum, etc.) they had large numbers of premature failure in all cases.

They recommended a celdek pad, which we installed and is working well. Major disadvandages of the pad are 1) increased cost, 2) some increased maintenance.

 

[willard3]

It depends strongly on the water quality and the fin material.

If there are lots of salts and minerals in your water or the water is corrosive you may trash the aluminium coil fins. If they are copper, they will last longer, but copper finning is rare on condensers.

Deposition on the fin surface will reduce heat transfer or corrode them away.

If the water is nasty, you can throw the pad away and put in a new one.