Prediction of the lifetime of droplets emitted from mechanical cooling towers by numerical investigation

Abstract

A numerical modelling capable to simulate the drift and the evaporation of water droplets emitted by a mechanical cooling tower in an urban area is presented. The model is based on a real mechanical draft cooling tower situated in the surroundings of the Miguel Hernández University (Elche, Spain). An experimental study of the deposition of droplets from the cooling tower is done in order to validate the numerical modelling. This study is performed by means of the water sensitive papers technique. A biharmonic interpolation is used for obtaining the total deposition on the floor. A total of 14 cases, everyone with different atmospheric conditions, have been simulated and experimentally validated. An analytical model for the droplets lifetime prediction is validated with the results obtained from the numerical modelling. The present study shows the influence of the atmospheric and droplets conditions in the droplets lifetime, providing useful information to analyse the spread of contaminants or bacteria inside the droplets released from the cooling tower.