Cooling tower heat transfer analysis combines the sensible and mass heat transfer
mechanisms into an overall process that uses enthalpy potential as the driving force for
heat transfer. The combined sensible and mass heat transfer processes that are depicted
in Figure 6 are represented by the tower characteristic equation
The heat balance across the cooling tower itself, where the laws of thermodynamics
require that the heat discharged by the water falling through the cooling tower equal the
heat absorbed by the air rising up through the tower, is governed by