Field measurement on the three-dimensional thermal characteristics of a single air inlet induced draft cooling tower

This study introduces the field measurement on a single air inlet induced draft cooling tower (SIDCT) under crosswind conditions. A three-dimensional numerical model is developed and validated to collaborate with the field measurement. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of environmental crosswind (both direction and velocity) on the thermal characteristics of SIDCT, such as air/water ratio, range, approach, Merkel number, heat transfer coefficient, etc. Measurement results demonstrate that as crosswind velocity rises, the ventilation and cooling performance of SIDCT are continuously enhanced under the crosswind directions of alpha(1) and alpha(2), while significantly decreased under alpha(3). As air flows into SIDCT along the depth direction, the air temperature above drift eliminators decreases firstly and then increases, which follows a reverse trend to the distribution pattern of air velocity. With the increasing crosswind velocity, the water temperature drop increases in the rain zone under alpha(1) and decreases in the fill zone under alpha(3), while the cooling capacity decreases in the fill zone and increases in the rain zone, regardless of the crosswind direction. The fitted correlations are derived for predicting the performance parameters with respect to crosswind velocity and direction.