Investigation on heat exchanger arrangement in solar enhanced natural draft dry cooling towers under various crosswind conditions

Abstract Solar enhanced natural draft dry cooling tower (SENDDCT) is a novel heat rejection device for thermal power plant, which uses solar energy to reheat the air after the heat exchanger and therefore improves the ventilation of the tower for performance enhancement. This paper develops 3-D models to compare the effects of circular/sawtooth arrangements of heat exchanger on cooling performance of a 140 m high SENDDCT. The result shows that sawtooth arrangement can improve the ventilation and heat dissipation rate of SENDDCTs. Under no crosswind condition, the flow field distributions of sawtooth and circular arrangements are similar in the tower. The ventilation and heat dissipation rate of sawtooth arrangement increases by 34.0 % and 46.8 % respectively when compared with circular arrangement under no crosswind condition. Under crosswind condition, the flow field of sawtooth arrangement is less affected by crosswind than that of circular arrangement. The ventilation rate and heat dissipation rate of sawtooth arrangement increases by 38.5 % and 65.0 % respectively when compared with circular arrangement at crosswind speed of 3 m/s. This study verifies that the sawtooth arrangement can weaken the crosswind effect and improve the cooling performance of SENDDCT and provides guidance for the optimal arrangement of heat exchanger for the SENDDCT.