Effect Mechanism of Ambient Air Parameters on the Thermal Performance for Cooling Towers

Abstract

As the volume of natural draft wet cooling towers (NDWCTs) continues to increase, the influence of ambient air on the thermal performance of the NDWCT is not clear. Therefore, the main parameters such as gas–water ratio, circulating water temperature difference, and heat transfer in each zone were calculated, and the temperature field and humidity field were also investigated. The results showed that the ambient temperature had the greatest influence on the cooling capacity of the NDWCT and the increase of ambient temperature led the circulating water temperature difference decreases the most, which was 7.63 °C (74.15%). The increase of relative humidity and atmospheric pressure led to an increase in convective heat transfer and the decrease in evaporative mass transfer, while both the convective heat transfer and evaporative mass transfer reduced with the decreasing temperature. This study establishes a theoretical foundation for optimizing of the thermal performance and energy-saving design of NDWCTs.