Sensible heat transfer

Definition

Heat transfer that changes temperature without a phase change, such as the direct warming of air in a cooling tower.

In a tower, roughly 15 percent of heat rejection is sensible, warming the air directly rather than evaporating water. This is the portion not captured when evaporation is assumed to carry the full load, and it explains the gap between the two evaporation calculation methods. Sensible transfer contrasts with the latent transfer that dominates evaporative cooling.

Related concepts

Evaporation factor · Latent Heat of Vaporization · Cooling tower evaporation

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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 🔥 thermodynamics