The Two Types of Cooling Tower Fill

Generally, cooling towers are structured and built to efficiently cool water as fast as possible. To do this, the water needs a bigger space to flow over a bigger surface, providing the water more exposure to air to cool it down. The Cooling Tower Fill is basically the means that is used in different cooling towers to add more surface area for the water to flow over.  

In specific, a cooling tower is a device that allows hot water to cool down through the evaporative cooling of water. Water cooling aims to utilize fully the water resources and reduce the operating costs by reducing the tap water supply through treating and recycling the water through a series of processes. 

As mentioned, the fill is the medium that is used to increase the space for the water. It is a plastic sheet and is important in different cooling water operations because they provide the necessary environment for the actual cooling down to take place. The water is necessary to have contact with the fill in a longer duration for fast cooling down.  

When the water has cooled down, it travels to another container to cool down other hot water. This process is what creates the steam that the cooling towers generate on the top of each building/ cooling water system.  

The Two Types of Cooling Tower Fills 

The performance of the cooling tower is largely determined by different elements and of which is the fill. There are two types of fill media, the film, and the splash. Similarities and comparison are the following: 

What is Film Fill? 

This fill provides sheets of material that are designed and shaped into a corrugated pattern that paves the way for the water. One film fill can be combined to different film fils to form blocks, to make it thicker, or to make it larger enough to achieve necessary demands.  

The film fill is more popular because it effectively and efficiently exposes water to a bigger water surface only within a packed volume. Some cooling towers use half of the fill and mostly all film that is used in counterflow cooling towers are film towers.  

This film, however, has its disadvantages. It cannot allow the water to redistribute itself. The water distribution should be, in the beginning, uniform, otherwise, the whole process will not work well. And because this fill has narrow passages, it is more prone to clogging, and it can be difficult to maintain.  

What is Splash Fill? 

This type of film allows the water to cascade through a series of parallel splash bars that make the water splash. It is commonly used in crowd flow water because of its ability to give the least opposition to airflow horizontally.  

There is a big advantage of using the splash fill: Unlike the film fill, it does not require strict initial distribution of water because the splashing itself redistributes the water at each level of splash bars. And unlike the film fill, it has efficient management of the water debris. It is also very easy to maintain.