When selecting the cooling tower packing it must be considered whether a new cooling tower is required or an existing one needs to be equipped with new packing.

A. New construction

For the selection of the appropriate packing both the required temperature approach and the quality of cooling water are particularly important.

If the cooling water circuit is considerably polluted or biologically charged, a packing consisting of splash laths is indicated. This type of fill is made of impregnated wood laths or polyester grids. Capacity characteristics and pressure losses of wooden lath grids were published in a comparative report by Kelly and Swenson (1956).

Fill grids and structured foil fillings with larger channel width are also used. The advantage is the better exchange capacity at lower pressure losses than with wooden grids. The disadvantage is the higher risk of pollution.