Three-Dimensional Numerical Calculations of Flow and Plume Spreading Past Cooling Towers

The paper reports on the application of an existing three-dimensional computer code to the calculation of the flow and temperature field past cooling towers. The code uses a rectangular grid so that the round tower geometry has be approximated by steps. Simulations are presented of various idealized laboratory studies carried out with cylindrical cooling tower models with the ratio of plume exit to cross-wind velocity varying in the range 0.2 to 1.7 and the densimetric Froude number in the range ∞ to 2. By comparison with the experimental results it is shown that the computer model is capable of reproducing the main features of the complex flow and temperature field past cooling towers including the downwash effect at strong cross winds. The quantitative agreement is not always entirely satisfactory, and suggestions are made for improving the computer model.