Recirculating cooling water systems are used to absorb heat in the heat exchanger network, usually operating in a parallel configuration and returning water to the cooling tower with a higher temperature. This configuration receives the fresh cooling water directly without any previous reuse. While this configuration is simple to operate, it leads to inefficient use of the cooling water. On the other hand, a series configuration can reduce the cooling water flow rate, but the complex arrangement and sometimes thermodynamic restrictions lead to higher operational costs. This paper proposes simplifying the network structure through a series-parallel configuration and determines the minimum water flow rate in the cooling system without affecting the heat load removal from the process heat exchangers, using the Cooling Water Sources Diagram (CWSD). Minimizing water consumption and increasing the water return temperature lead to an improvement in the cooling tower's efficiency, which reduces its operational cost. One case study with different scenarios is presented to cover several cooling system characteristics to demonstrate the proposed new tool's applicability and efficiency. The results are compatible with those observed in the literature, being superior in some cases, either in terms of cost values or generating different possible networks.

循环冷却水系统用于吸收热交换器网络中的热量，该系统通常以并联配置运行，并将水以较高的温度返回冷却塔。这种配置直接接收新鲜的冷却水，而无需任何先前的重复使用。尽管该配置易于操作，但是导致冷却水的低效使用。另一方面，串联结构可以降低冷却水的流速，但是复杂的布置以及有时的热力学限制导致较高的运行成本。本文建议通过串联-并联配置简化网络结构，并确定冷却系统中的最小水流量而不影响热量升使用冷却水源图（CWSD）从过程热交换器中去除燕麦。减少水消耗并提高回水温度可提高冷却塔的效率，从而降低其运行成本。提出了一个具有不同场景的案例研究，涵盖了多个案例C充分利用系统特性来证明所提议的新工具的适用性和效率。 结果与文献中观察到的结果相符，在某些情况下，无论是在成本价值上还是在生成不同的可能的网络方面，这些结果都是出色的。