LAUSR

Abstract In order to evaluate the thermal performance of different zones for high level water collecting wet cooling towers (HWCTs) precisely, field test was conducted on one real HWCT equipped for a 1000 MW unit under different crosswind and water-spraying density conditions. In this paper, three parameters αs, αf and αr, which represent the cooling capacity of water-spraying zone, fillings zone and rain zone, respectively, are introduced to evaluate the crosswind influence on different zones. The variations of αs, αf and αr under windless and crosswind conditions were researched. The results demonstrate that, under windless condition, αf exceeds 88%. As crosswind velocity rises from 0.28 m/s to 4.79 m/s, when Q = 68646 t/h, αf decreases by 8.8%, while αs keeps around 10%, and αr increases by 5.6%. Additionally, it can be obtained that the cooling capacity of fillings is more outstanding under lower circulating water flow rate and small crosswind velocity conditions. Based on the test data, the fitting equations between αf and crosswind velocity are obtained. Briefly, the cooling capacity of different zones is obtained in this paper, and derived the changing rules of cooling capacity with different crosswind velocity, which can be used to guide the engineering design.