Analysis of the controllability of the natural draft cooling tower

Abstract

Copyright © 2019 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved The most important performance indicators of thermal and nuclear power plants depend on the technological characteristics of natural draught cooling towers. However, those apparatuses are often operated in terms of their low efficiency. One of the reasons for the decline in natural draught cooling tower performance may be uneven distribution of flows. A comprehensive study of the operating characteristics of a natural draught cooling tower under the conditions of uneven distribution of water and air flows through the sections of the apparatus has been carried out. There are four main factors (parameters) affecting the air flow in each section of the apparatus: the temperature difference between the incoming water for cooling and atmospheric air, the hydrodynamic resistance coefficient of the section, the water concentration in it and the wind speed in the immediate vicinity of the air supplying windows. Field studies of the effect of wind speed on the distribution of air flow in sections of a natural draught cooling tower were carried out. A qualitative analysis has been made concerning the influence of the degree of air supplying windows opening on the air flow rate in a natural draught cooling tower. Based on this analysis, an assumption has been made about the extremity of this characteristic at critical wind speeds, which can be taken into account when developing a natural draught cooling tower control system. The results of the work can be used in the development of an automated contro l system for the apparatus.