A decoupled method to identify affecting mechanism of crosswind on performance of a natural draft dry cooling tower

doi:10.1007/s11708-019-0627-x

Front. Energy

2020, Vol. 14

Issue (2) : 318-327 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-019-0627-x

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A decoupled method to identify affecting mechanism of crosswind on performance of a natural draft dry cooling tower

Weiliang WANG(

), Junfu LYU, Hai ZHANG, Qing LIU, Guangxi YUE, Weidou NI

Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

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Abstract

The natural draft dry cooling tower (NDDCT) has been increasingly used for cooling in power generation in arid area. As crosswind affects the performance of a NDDCT in a complicated way, and the basic affecting mechanism is unclear, attempts have been made to improve the performance of a NDDCT based on limited experiences. This paper introduces a decoupled method to study the complicated crosswind effects on the inlet and outlet of a NDDCT separately by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and hot state experiments. Accordingly, the basic affecting mechanism of crosswind on the NDDCT performance is identified. Crosswind changes the inlet flow field of a NDDCT and induces mainstream vortices inside the tower, so as to degrade the ventilation. Besides, low crosswind deflects the upward plume at the outlet to further degrade the ventilation, while high crosswind induces the low pressure area at the outlet to reduce the ventilation degradation.

Keywords affecting mechanism crosswind decoupled method mainstream vortices natural draft dry cooling tower (NDDCT) degradation

Corresponding Author(s): Weiliang WANG

Online First Date: 28 May 2019 Issue Date: 22 June 2020

Cite this article:

Weiliang WANG,Junfu LYU,Hai ZHANG, et al. A decoupled method to identify affecting mechanism of crosswind on performance of a natural draft dry cooling tower[J]. Front. Energy, 2020, 14(2): 318-327.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-019-0627-x
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2020/V14/I2/318

Tab.1 Structural parameters of NDDCT

Fig.1 Numerical model of a NDDCT

Tab.2 Ventilation capacity at different grids number Unit: kg/s

Fig.2 Experimental setup

Fig.3 Locations of the pressure surfaces selected

Fig.4 Variation of different FLFs in baseline model

Fig.5 Variation trends of different FLFs in inlet-model

Fig.6 Streamline of inlet-model under typical crosswind

Fig.7 Pressure field of the plane of symmetry at a crosswind of 20 m/s

Fig.8 Ventilation rate of a NDDCT under inlet-model and baseline conditions

Fig.9 Variation of different FLFs in outlet-model

Fig.10 Ventilation rate of a NDDCT under outlet-model and baseline conditions

Fig.11 Velocity field of a NDDCT at a crosswind of 10 m/s

Fig.12 Measured ventilation rate in bench scale

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