Numerical study of the influence of ambient conditions on the mechanical cooling tower drift deposition in an urban area

Abstract

Drift of small water droplets from mechanical draft cooling tower installations is objectionable for several reasons, mainly due to human health reasons. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code including Lagrangian prediction of the trajectory descent of droplets is considered to predict plume rise and surface drift deposition from mechanical draft cooling towers. The influence of psychrometric ambient conditions and wind velocity profiles on the drift is considered. CFD drift deposition calculations are performed for a specific urban mechanical draft cooling tower situation. The data registered of the plume performance and drift deposition in the experimental set-up are employed to validate the numerical results