Provided are an operation control system and an operation control method for a chiller cooling tower. The operation control system includes a water chilling unit, a first temperature sensor, a second temperature sensor, a programmable logic controller, and an artificial intelligence controller.

A cooling tower having a controller installed within the cooling tower which controls the operation of pump motors, fans, dampers, valves and adjusts the speed of the fan and pump motor. The controller is placed inside a compartment which is attached to an inside surface of the cooling tower. The compartment has an inlet and an outlet such that conditioned air enters the compartment inlet and flows over the surface of the controller to either cool or heat the controller and then the conditioned air, which has flowed over the surface of the controller, exits the compartment through the compartment outlet.

A flow-guiding rod includes a cooling channel provided in a rod portion of the flow-guiding rod, and a coolant inlet pipe and a coolant outlet pipe provided on end(s) of the flow-guiding rod. The coolant inlet pipe and the coolant outlet pipe are communicated with the cooling channel.

A method by a controller of a cooling system includes calculating a difference between a first temperature of ambient air and a second temperature of pre-cooled air. The pre-cooled air is ambient air that has been cooled by water from a water distribution system before it enters one or more condenser coils. The method further includes determining that the difference between the first and second temperatures is less than or equal to a predetermined temperature difference, and in response, determining that the first temperature is greater than or equal to a minimum temperature. The method further includes, if the first temperature is greater than or equal to the minimum temperature, instructing the water distribution system to distribute the water to pre-cool the ambient air for a predetermined length of time and to disable the distribution of the water after the predetermined amount of time has elapsed.

A cooling tower control method, used for controlling a cooling tower having at least one sensor, includes: receiving and processing a received sensor data; based on the received sensor data, timing training a water outlet temperature prediction model; receiving a target water outlet temperature; traverse searching a plurality of control parameter combinations meeting the target water outlet temperature; selecting an energy-saving target control parameter combination from the plurality of control parameter combinations meeting the target water outlet temperature; and controlling the cooling tower based on the target control parameter combination.

A method by a controller of a cooling system includes calculating a difference between a first temperature of ambient air and a second temperature of pre-cooled air. The pre-cooled air is ambient air that has been cooled by water from a water distribution system before it enters one or more condenser coils. The method further includes determining that the difference between the first and second temperatures is less than or equal to a predetermined temperature difference, and in response, determining that the first temperature is greater than or equal to a minimum temperature. The method further includes, if the first temperature is greater than or equal to the minimum temperature, instructing the water distribution system to distribute the water to pre-cool the ambient air for a predetermined length of time and to disable the distribution of the water after the predetermined amount of time has elapsed.

Chiller control systems and methods for chiller control use iterative modeling of cooling towers, heat exchangers, and pumps to determine the feasibility of integrated free cooling and the ability to take advantage of free cooling. The control systems and control methods can further include selecting the parameters for operating in the free cooling or integrated free cooling mode to improve efficiency and/or reduce energy consumption when operating in these modes. The models can have inputs and outputs that feed into one another, and converge at a solution over multiple iterations. The feasibility of integrated free cooling can be based on providing cooling to a cooling load process fluid at a heat exchanger. The availability of free cooling can be based on the cooling provided at the heat exchanger achieving a target temperature for the cooling load process fluid.

In one aspect, a fan array fault response control system is provided for a cooling tower. The fan array fault response control system includes a fan interface configured to be in communication with a plurality of fans of the cooling tower and a processor operably coupled to the fan interface. The processor is configured to detect at least one non-operational fan of the plurality of fans. The processor configured to effect, in response to detecting the at least one non-operational fan, a reduced fan speed of at least one operational fan of the plurality of fans.

A system for reducing evaporative cooling water losses using an electric and magnetic field inducing device is disclosed. The device influences a liquid's properties including evaporation rate, diffusion, vapor, heat transfer rate, and/or fluid properties. The device comprises a malleable core with notches and electrically conductive windings wrapped around the flexible core around the notches. An insulative coating isolates the windings from the core. The device is pliable and is wrapped and/or attached around a conduit (e.g., a makeup line or pipe or a recirculating line or pipe of an evaporative cooling tower) with flowing fluid and current is passed through the windings to treat the fluid.

A method of controlling cooling water treatment may involve measuring operating data of one or more downstream heat exchangers that receive cooling water from the cooling tower. For example, the inlet and outlet temperatures of both the hot and cold streams of a downstream heat exchanger may be measured. Data from the streams passing through the heat exchanger may be used to determine a heat transfer efficiency for the heat exchanger. The heat transfer efficiency can be trended over a period of time and changes in the trend detected to identify cooling waterfouling issues. Multiple potential causes of the perceived fouling issues can be evaluated to determine a predicted cause. A chemical additive selected to reduce, eliminate, or otherwise control the cooling water fouling can be controlled based on the predicted cause of the fouling.