The document discusses the fundamentals of cooling tower design and operation. Cooling towers work by evaporating a portion of hot water into unsaturated air, which cools the water. Differential balances are used in the tower, including enthalpy and mass balances. Design equations require integrating these differential equations. The results are used to determine the height of transfer units (HTUs) and number of transfer units (NTUs) needed. NTUs are evaluated using equilibrium data from psychrometric charts, while HTUs are evaluated using operating line and driving force line data and slopes. A minimum air flow is also determined based on an infinite packing height.