Experimental study of wind effects on the airflow of natural draft wet cooling towers

Abstract

Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Turkey, 19-21 July, 2010.Natural draft cooling towers may enhance the overall performance of a thermal or a nuclear power station by providing coolant water to the condenser at a reduced temperature. The cooling tower thermal performance and its air flow inside the tower are influenced by the prevailing cross winds which in turn are amplified or damped by the flow­-conditioning characteristics of surrounding structures, building and terrains in the relative proximity and orientation to the tower. These characteristics were investigated in the No-1 cooling tower at the Mount Piper Power Station near Sydney in Australia. The tower was instrumented using thermocouples and directional anemometers to measure air velocities and temperatures both inside and outside of the tower over three months period. The test results have indicated that surrounding structures and their relative orientations to the tower and wind directions affect on the air flow rate inside a tower and should be considered at the design stage..