Application of Swirl Generators in The Heat Dump Capacity of Natural Draft Dry Cooling Towers.

Natural draft dry cooling towers (NDDCT) are critical to industries requiring heat dump as well as modern or classical power generation cycles. The ability to operate without water makes them a suitable option for arid areas and concentrated solar power generation plants. The current methods to improve the performance of dry cooling towers in the case of crosswinds are limited to windbreaks or similar solutions. Inducing swirling flow into the tower can improve the draft velocity in the tower. Experimental and numerical analysis on a 0.5 m in diameter model, equipped with nozzles, arranged at specific locations at different swirling velocities are performed. Dissipated power from the tower can be increased by 45% at the Rosbey number of 0.3, at the maximum tested velocity. Visualization of plume shape with background oriented focusing large scale Schlieren technique shows agreement with the numerical solutions, while the instantons plume shape suggests that the flow is highly transient and it is subjected to the frequent formation of hot air lumps, justifying the usage of transient solutions. Schlieren imaging shows swirling flow prevents the intrusion of cold flow into the tower preventing premature necking of the plume. The energy analysis shows that stability in energy production at higher efficiency rates can justify the usage of such methods to enhance the cooling capacity of power cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]