Aerodynamic Characteristics of the Cooling Tower under the Nonuniform Distribution of the Water and Air Flows

Abstract

© 2019, Pleiades Publishing, Inc. Abstract: At thermal power stations, the rate of the fuel equivalent consumed to generate electric energy, the vacuum level in condensers, and the steam turbine output are determined by the performance of the cooling towers. However, the occurrence of water and air flows' nonuniform distribution may become one of the causes of a reduction in the cooling towers' efficiency. Research into the aerodynamic characteristics of a chimney-type cooling tower under the nonuniform distribution of the water and air flows over the cells of the apparatus has been conducted. The effects of four factors, viz., the drop of the atmospheric air and cooling water temperatures, the hydrodynamic resistance coefficient of a cell, the water concentration in the latter, and the wind velocity in close proximity of the air-intake ports, on the consumption rate of the intake air and its distribution over the cooling tower cells have been analyzed. The effect of the water concentration on the distribution of the air over the cooling tower cells has been studied under laboratory and field conditions. The existence of a correlation relationship between the above parameters has been established. In the course of the experiments, the extreme form of dependence of the wind velocity distribution over the cooling tower cells on the wind velocity field in the vicinity of the air-intake ports has been obtained. The effect of every factor on the air velocity in individual cells and the cooling tower as a whole has been analyzed. Based on the experimental results, both one-dimensional regression equations and a multiple regression equation for all factors have been derived.