Abstract
In recent years, the steel-truss natural draft dry cooling technique has received attention owing to its advantages in better aseismic capability, shorter construction period, and preferable recycling. For cooling towers generating the draft force of air flow, its configuration may impact the thermal and flow performance of the steel-truss natural draft dry cooling system. With regard to the issue, this work explored the thermal and flow characteristics for the steel-truss natural draft dry cooling systems with four typical engineering tower configurations. By numerical simulation, the pressure, flow, and temperature contours were analyzed, then air mass flow rates and heat rejections were calculated and compared for the local air-cooled sectors and overall steel-truss natural draft dry cooling systems with those four tower configurations. The results present that tower 2 with the conical/cylindrical configuration had slightly lower heat rejection compared with tower 1 with the traditional hyperbolic configuration. Tower 3 with the hyperbolic/cylindrical configuration showed better thermo-flow performances than tower 1 at high crosswinds, while tower 4 with the completely cylindrical configuration appeared to have much reduced cooling capability under various crosswind conditions, along with strongly deteriorated thermal and flow behaviors. As for engineering application of the steel-truss natural draft dry cooling system, the traditional hyperbolic tower configuration is recommended for local regions with gentle wind, while for those areas with gale wind yearly, the hyperbolic/cylindrical integrated cooling tower is preferred.
Subject
Energy (miscellaneous),Energy Engineering and Power Technology,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment,Electrical and Electronic Engineering,Control and Optimization,Engineering (miscellaneous)