Heat Transfer Enhancement of the Air-Cooling Tower with Rotating Wind Deflectors under Crosswind Conditions

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 8; no. 4; p. 544
• Main Authors: Du, Xueping, Han, Dongtai, Zhu, Qiangmin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.04.2018
• Subjects: air cooling tower; Air flow; air flow rate; Chemical industry; Computer simulation; Cooling; Cooling rate; Cooling towers; crosswind; Crosswinds; Deflectors; Efficiency; Energy conservation; Experiments; Flow rates; Flow velocity; Heat exchangers; Heat transfer; heat transfer rate; Maintenance management; Mathematical models; Numerical models; Radiators; rotating wind deflector; Rotation; Sun; Thermodynamic efficiency; Uncertainty; Velocity; Water conservation; Wind; Wind speed; China
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app8040544

According to the distribution of natural wind and the vertical distance between the two fans in the experiment, the top-level wind velocity produced by the upper fan was approximately 0 m/s in the windless state and 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, and 1.6 m/s according to previous research [27]. According to uncertainty estimation methods [29], the maximum experimental uncertainty for the temperature drop and heat transfer rate of water was 1.41% and 2.06%, respectively. 2.2. The air flow rate and heat transfer rate obtained by numerical simulation vary with crosswind velocity as shown in Figure 13. [...]the thermal efficiency coefficients of the cooling tower from the numerical and experimental results are shown in Figure 10 and are used to validate the numerical model. [...]as the crosswind speed increases, the air flow rate and heat transfer rate of the air-cooling tower decreases and then increases. [...]the idea of rotating wind deflectors is proposed and found to be efficacious for saving energy on radiator heat transfer in the air-cooling tower according to the numerical simulation and experimental results.