Energy balance considerations indicate that the droplet heat transfer coefficient, local wet bulb temperature, and droplet size distribution function are the basic parameters affecting spray system thermal performance. Within the range of available experimental data, results indicate that the Ranz-Marshall correlation gives an agreement to within ±5.0 percent of measured droplet temperatures at the pond surface for a medium wind range of between 2.5 and 5 m/s. The local wet bulb temperature is taken as the arithmetic mean of the initial and final wet bulb temperatures. For wind speeds greater than 3.5 m/s, the local wet bulb can be taken as the ambient. The modified log normal distribution of Mugele and Evans provides the best description of the droplet size distribution. Further, through the introduction of a correction term, the Spray Energy Release (SER) can be deduced from single droplet information.
