How Does cooling tower fill Work?

If you’ve never worked with cooling towers before, you may be led to believe that the water inside the tower plays the most crucial role. And while water is integral to the function of cooling towers, the true heart of any tower is the fill. 

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Since , Marley Flow Control has been an industry leader in the manufacturing of cooling towers. We are an Australian-owned and operated brand that offers a high level of expertise and an extensive range of products that are ready to order. Our wealth of knowledge has allowed us to work with some of the country’s largest businesses and corporations we are pleased to call our clients.

As industry leaders, we have a high level of expertise and can provide a wide range of cooling tower services. If you need help with your cooling tower, contact our highly experienced team to discuss your options today. 

So why are fills so important, and what is their function? What is the difference between a splash fill and a film fill? Read our helpful blog to learn everything you need to know about your cooling tower fill.

How do cooling towers work?

Before we can discuss the role of fills in a cooling tower, it’s essential to understand how these towers work.

Firstly, hot water is distributed over the top of the cooling tower. Nozzles spray the water over the cooling fill. This exposes the water to ambient, cool air.

Using several large fans, cold air is blown past the warm water, causing some liquid to evaporate. This evaporation process is what cools the water. The heat leftover is then transferred from the water stream to the air stream, raising the temperature and humidity. The hot air is then released into the atmosphere, leaving behind cooled water. 

Water is then collected at the cold water basin of the tower, ready for the pumps to recirculate cold water through the system again.

What is a cooling tower fill?

The cooling tower fill is a medium used in cooling towers to increase the surface area of the tower. Its primary function is to put as much water surface area in contact with as much air as possible, for as long as possible. This allows for greater evaporation rates.

The two most popular types of fills are:

• Splash fill
• Film fill 

Splash fill VS film fill

Splash fill

A splash fill is made from many layers of slats or bars. When hot water cascades through this series of slats or bars, the liquid breaks down into smaller particles – in simple terms, a splash fill is designed to interrupt water flow and cause splashing. This allows for increased contact between the water and air, which is then contained within the atmosphere. 

Originally, splash fills were made from wood. But modern splash fills are made from PVC, which allows for a greater heat transfer. And because splash fills converts liquid into tiny droplets, dirt and debris are easily separated from the water. This makes them the perfect choice for industries that produce poor quality, excess water – like mining and chemical facilities. 

Advantages of a splash fill are:

• The water can redistribute on multiple levels
• General maintenance can be performed via a simple visual inspection, thanks to its wide, open construction.

Film fill    

Unlike a splash fill, a film fill is made of many thin sheets of PVC, placed very close together. As the water forms thin flowing sheets across the fill, a large surface area is created, allowing hot air to circulate and contact the film of water. 

Any dirt or debris in the water is collected on the film of the fill. 

The advantages of a film fill are:

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• It exposes the water to a larger surface area, increasing the efficiency of the tower
• It’s fully customisable to suit the function of the tower
• Quick and easy installation
• Self-extinguishing for an excellent fire rating.

Fill profiles  

Fill profiles are the patterns, ridges or wrinkles in a fill. Typically fill profiles are designed to force the water to take the longest route along the fills as possible. 

Small flutes allow for more capacity per cubic foot, making them more efficient than larger flutes. However, large fill profiles are less likely to get clogged with dirt than smaller fill profiles. This makes them the perfect option for industries like steel mills, as they use low-quality water. 

In extreme cases with dirty water, a bar type fill can be used. A bar type fill takes the form of splash bars throughout the tower, allowing for larger debris to be passed through. It may be the least efficient fill, but a bar type fill is easier to clean and is more effective at processing dirty water.

Marley Flow Control: Australia’s leading cooling tower manufacturer

Marley Flow Control is the Australian distributor for the SPX (Marley) cooling tower range. We will help choose the correct product according to the thermal duty, noise and space limitations, environmental conditions and water conditions. 

Australian owned and operated, we are a well-known and trusted brand that offers a high level of expertise and an extensive range of products ready to order. Additionally, we provide a comprehensive cooling tower inspection and repair service. We provide repair work on the fill and mechanical components and a full functional annual assessment. Afterwards, we provide a comparison between a comprehensive refurbishment or a new cooling tower.

Our experienced team has the skills and equipment to fit new motors, driveshafts, gearboxes and fans in the field, including long laser alignments of up to four metres.

Cooling towers aren’t all crafted the same or even from the same materials. For example, natural draft towers use convection for air circulation. Mechanical draft towers instead use fans to encourage or increase air circulation. Even within a mechanical draft unit, construction can vary depending on the airflow direction (crossflow vs. counterflow). However, one component all cooling towers share is a fill, or fill media. The fill is essentially what allows cooling and evaporation to happen as it provides a surface on which water and airflow to meet. Understanding clearly what fills are, the types of fills most often used, and their role of them in the cooling process is important for all tower owners and operators.

The Role of a Fill in the Cooling Process

The term “fill” refers to the medium used to create a greater surface area for water passing through the tower to be cooled. Fills are also sometimes called wet decks or fill mediums. More surface area means contact between airflow and water is maximized, leading to quicker evaporation and ultimately, cooling rates. Essentially, a fill keeps water in contact with a surface for longer and increases the heat exchange area – this allows the process to happen much faster.  

Fills (or Fill Medias) can be crafted from a variety of materials, plastic being one of the most common. While there are also several types of fills, most applications make use of two, splash fill and film fill.

The Two Main Types of Cooling Tower Fills

A splash fill, as its name suggests, causes water to splash by cutting across, or interrupting water flow. This type of fill uses layers of horizontal bars that when water hits them, break it up into smaller droplets. More (and smaller) droplets mean quicker evaporation. PVC is often the material of choice for splash fills, as it is more consistent (and efficient) than traditional wood splash fills. It is also considered a very “wettable” material, meaning it is easy for liquids to spread across it. PVC is also very durable and has a long lifespan as well as being easy for water to cover it completely.

For applications in areas with chronically poor water quality, splash fills are often preferred. Because this type doesn’t have spaces for dirt or debris from the incoming water to collect, efficiency remains intact.

The other main type of fill is a film fill, in which very thin, textured sheets of PVC are placed close together so that water spreads across them (forming a type of film). Textures used on the PVC are called channels or flutes. Flutes can run horizontally, vertically, in a cross-corrugated fashion, or any other number of directions and patterns. The channels essentially send incoming water on a long journey of twists and turns rather than allowing it to fall in a single line. Because the water is allowed to travel in so many directions, the resulting film is very thin, and water evaporates quickly.  

It might seem like film fills would always be the best option, because of their very fast evaporation rate. However, in applications where incoming water is very concentrated with dirt or debris, these fills are not ideal. That debris can clog the flutes easily if not sized correctly. One solution to this issue if a film fill is preferred is to widen the flute/channel size to make it more difficult for debris to collect and clog the fill. However, if water quality is a very serious issue, then an alternative fill might work better, such as a bar fill – which helps very dirty water to be processed, albeit in a way that is less efficient than in instances of cleaner water.

Choosing a New Cooling Tower and Fill Type

Cooling towers are essential components of most manufacturing industries and large commercial HVAC systems. Selecting a new or replacement cooling tower involves a lot of key decisions, including the size, type of airflow, and the type of fill. These decisions can’t be made correctly without extensive industry knowledge and experience as well as a deep understanding of the specific tower’s intended use and any nuances that come with that (including water quality).

Unless you have a team of experts on hand with the knowledge and training to properly select, install, and maintain a cooling tower, we suggest partnering with a team that does. At Cooling Tower Experts, our leaders bring decades of experience as industry experts and contributors. Our team is highly trained and qualified, each bringing extensive knowledge of the technical side of towers and everything that goes into getting (and keeping) them running efficiently for years.

We provide consulting services for those owners/operators needing that added expertise and tower experience. With this service, you get experts to help you avoid many of those common pitfalls and mistakes that owners make when installing, maintaining, or repairing towers. Additionally, expert consulting often leads to a much quicker decision-making process as well as an overall shorter project timeline. Good managers know the value of a shortened timeline – less labor cost and less downtime, meaning more money saved.