NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE ADVERSE EFFECT OF WIND ON THE HEAT TRANSFER PERFORMANCE OF TWO NATURAL DRAFT COOLING TOWERS IN TANDEM ARRANGEMENT

This article reports the findings on the adverse effect of the crosswind on the performance of natural draft cooling towers through numerical computation with the k-epsilon eddy-viscosity turbulence model. It is observed here that the cause of the adverse effect of the crosswind on the cooling towers call be attributed to the around flow effect which destroys the radial inflow into the cooling towers when the wind is absent. Hence, a significant deterioration in the heat transfer from the heat exchangers at lateral sides occurs.

Spray Effect on the Thermal Performances of a Dry Cooling Tower

Pre-cooling the inlet air of a dry cooling tower by means of a spray can improve the tower performance during periods of high temperature.To study the spray effect on the thermal performance of natural draft dry cooling towers(NDDCTs),in this study 3-D numerical simulations of such a process have been conducted using Fluent 16.2(a two-way coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian approach).The considered NDDCT is 120 m high and only half system is simulated due to its structural symmetry.Three different spray strategies have been investigated at a typical crosswind speed of 4 m/s,which is the most frequent wind speed.The results have shown that:(1)The three implemented spray strategies can improve the thermal performance of the studied NDDCT with a vary-ing degree of success.In one case,the heat rejection rate can be increased by 35.2%,and the tower outlet water temperature can be decreased by 2.1℃ when compared with the no spray case;(2)To improve the thermal per-formance of the NDDCT using a small amount of water,the design of the spray pre-cooling system must include more nozzles on the windward and fewer or even no nozzles on the leeward sides of the NDDCT.

Experimental Study on Mechanical Properties of Q345 Steel after High Temperature Cooling

Because of its advantages of light weight, high strength and convenient construction, steel structure has gradually become the first choice for large-span and high-rise structures. The use of high strength steel in building engineering can reduce the section size of components and the weight of the structure, thus increasing the building area. But steel is not fire-resistant, when the temperature reaches 600°C, steel loses most of the stiffness and strength. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the fire resistance of steel structures, and the mechanical properties of steel structures at high temperature are the foundation of the fire resistance research. The mechanical properties of steel after high temperature are the basis for the safety assessment of steel structure after fire. Therefore, this paper studies the mechanical properties of Q345 steel after high temperature cooling.

Energy Saving Model and Calculation Example of Three Cooling Schemes for Data Center in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Area

In order to achieve the goal of “carbon peak” in 2030 and “carbon neutralization” in 2060, the task of energy conservation has risen to the national strategic level, and its work is urgent. It focuses on energy saving and energy consumption in data center, 5G network and other fields. The gravity heat pipe double cycle air conditioning is a kind of room air conditioning which uses natural cooling source with high efficiency. According to the outdoor meteorological parameters of ten typical cities in China, the calculation model of unit hybrid refrigeration mode is established by using integral method. A simplified algorithm for statistical summation is proposed. Then it compares with the same type of refrigerant pump air conditioner, water-cooled chiller and natural cooling plate. The results show that the annual operation time of gravity heat pipe double cycle air conditioner is 50.8% longer than that of refrigerant pump air conditioner. Then the calculation model is verified by the annual actual operation data of a data center in Changsha. The results show that the double cycle air conditioner with gravity heat pipe can save about 34% energy compared with the chiller. The accuracy of the calculation model is 17.5%, which meets the engineering accuracy requirements. The application of gravity heat pipe double cycle air conditioning in hot summer and cold winter area is a scheme worthy of popularization and application.

Comparison of the thermal properties of clay samples as potential walling material for naturally cooled building design

The thermal properties of different clay samples obtained from locations in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria were investigated and compared, and in order to establish their suitability as building material from energy conservation point of view. The results showed that stoneware clay has the highest solar radiation absorptivity of 22 32 m -1 while kaolin clay has the lowest radiation absoptivity of 14 46 m -1 A model for the prediction of temperature variation with thickness of the samples was developed. Results showed that kaolin would make the best choice for the design of a naturally cooled building.

Effect of SiO_(2) Aerogel-cement Mortar Coating on Strength of Self-Compacting Concrete after Simulated Tunnel Fire

In order to facilitate self-compacting concrete to be better used in tunnel linings that can resist fires,a SiO_(2) aerogel-cement mortar coating was prepared.Based on the HC curve,a self compacting concrete cube specimens coated and uncoated with SiO_(2) aerogel-cement mortar(SiO_(2)-ACM)were heated to simulate tunnel fire for 0.5,1,1.5,2,2.5,3 and 4 h,respectively.The residual compressive strength was tested after the specimens were cooled to room temperature by natural cooling and water cooling.The results show that,the damages of specimens become more serious as fire time goes on,but the residual strength of specimens coated with SiO_(2)-ACM is always higher than that of uncoated with SiO_(2)-ACM.In addition,the residual strength of specimens cooled by water cooling is lower than that of natural cooling.However,for the specimens coated with SiO_(2)-ACM,the adverse effects of water cooling are lessened.With the increase of fire time,the protective effect of SiO_(2)-ACM is still gradually improved.Finally,a formula was established to predict the residual 150 mm cube compressive strength of specimens protected by SiO_(2)-ACM after a simulated tunnel fire.

Research on the effects of heating and cooling processes on the mechanical properties of yellow rust granite

Geological hazards caused by high-temperature rocks cooling down after encountering water are closely related to underground mining and tunneling projects.To fully understand the impact of temperature changes on the mechanical properties of rocks,yellow rust granite samples were subjected to heating-natural cooling and heating-water cooling cycles to experimentally study the effects of these processes on the mechanical properties of the samples.The mechanism of the heating-cooling process on the macromechanical properties of the rock was discussed.Based on the Drucker-Prager criterion and Weibull distribution function,a damage variable correction factor was introduced to reflect the post-peak strain softening characteristics,and a thermo-mechanical coupled damage constitutive model of the granite was established.The results showed that in the natural cooling mode,the mechanical properties deteriorate significantly when the temperature exceeded 600C,and the failure mode changed from brittle failure to ductile failure.In the water cooling mode,the peak strength and deformation modulus increased at temperatures below 400C with an increase in the cycle number,while at 600C,the peak strength and elastic modulus notably decreased.The peak strain increased with the increase of the cycle number and temperature at all temperatures,and the failure mode of the granite tended to change from tensile failure mode to shear failure mode.The experimental results were used to validate the damage constitutive model.The shape parameter r and scale parameter S in the Weibull distribution function of the model were used as indicators to reflect the brittleness degree and peak strength.This study helps to understand the behavior of rocks in hightemperature environments,in order to prevent and mitigate potential geological hazards.

A decoupled method to identify affecting mechanism of crosswind on performance of a natural draft dry cooling tower

The natural draft dry cooling tower(NDDCT)has been increasingly used for cooling in power generation in arid area.As crosswind affects the performance of a NDDCT in a complicated way,and the basic affecting mechanism is unclear,attempts have been made to improve the performance of a NDDCT based on limited experiences.This paper introduces a decoupled method to study the complicated crosswind effects on the inlet and outlet of a NDDCT separately by computational fluid dynamics(CFD)modeling and hot state experiments.Accordingly,the basic affecting mechanism of crosswind on the NDDCT performance is identified.Crosswind changes the inlet flow field of a NDDCT and induces mainstream vortices inside the tower,so as to degrade the ventilation.Besides,low crosswind deflects the upward plume at the outlet to further degrade the ventilation,while high crosswind induces the low pressure area at the outlet to reduce the ventilation degradation.

Experimental Study of Effects of Cross Wind on Flow in Natural-draft Dry-cooling Towers

The effects of cross wind on the flow field in natural draft dry cooling towers are studied experimentally in a wind tunnel using similarity principles. Particular attention is focused on the flow fields inside the tower. The study illustrates the influence of wind on the cooling tower performance and proposes a number of techniques for improving tower performance with a cross wind

A Novel Approach for Energy Efficiency Prediction of Various Natural Draft Wet Cooling Towers Using ANN

Cooling tower is crucial equipment in the cool-end system of power plant and the natural draft counter-flow wet cooling tower(NDWCT)gets wide application.The artificial neural network(ANN)technique is becoming an effective method for the thermal performance investigation of cooling towers.However,the neural network research on the energy efficiency performance of NDWCTs is not sufficient.In this paper,a novel approach was proposed to predict energy efficiency of various NDWCTs by using Back Propagation(BP)neural network:Firstly,based on 638 sets of field test data within 36 diverse NDWCTs in power plant,a three-layer BP neural network model with structure of 8-14-2 was developed.Then the cooling number and evaporation loss of water of different NDWCTs were predicted adopting the BP model.The results show that the established BP neural network has preferable prediction accuracy for the heat and mass transfer performance of NDWCT with various scales.The predicted cooling number and evaporative loss proportion of the testing cooling towers are in good agreement with experimental values with the mean relative error in the range of 2.11%–4.45%and 1.04%–4.52%,respectively.Furthermore,the energy efficiency of different NDWCTs can also be predicted by the proposed BP model with consideration of evaporation loss of water in cooling tower.At last,a novel method for energy efficiency prediction of various NDWCTs using the developed ANN model was proposed.The energy efficiency index(EEI)of different NDWCTs can be achieved readily without measuring the temperature as well as velocity of the outlet air.

STUDY ON THE AIRFLOW RESISTANCE IN NATURAL DRAFT COOLING TOWERS

A new approach for improving the calculation of the airflow resistance coefficient of natural draft cooling towers from the inlet to throat (4) has been presented in this paper. The suggested equations areWhere. ζ1 is the coefficient of the airflow resistance with no consideration of waterdrop in rain zone, ζ2 is the coefficient of the airflow resistance due to falling of waterdrop in rain zone, s is the rate of the inlet area to the area at elevation of the packing, q is the water loading, V0 air velocity at the packing section.

Characteristics of Bi-2223 HTS Tapes Under Short-Circuit Current Impacts in Hybrid Energy Transmission Pipelines

A hybrid energy transmission pipeline is proposed with the aim of long-distance cooperative transmission of electricity and chemical fuels, which is composed of an inner high-temperature superconducting (HTS) power cable and outer liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline. The flowing LNG could maintain the operating temperature of the inner HTS power cable within the range of 85 K-90 K, thus the Bi-2223 superconductors in the HTS power cable produce little Joule loss with the transmission current below the critical current. Owing to the advantages of high power density, low transmission losses and economical manufacturing costs, the hybrid energy transmission pipeline is expected to be widely utilized in the near future. In order to ensure the safety of the HTS power cable and explosive LNG in case of short-circuit faults, this paper tests and analyzes the characteristics of Bi-2223 HTS tapes of the Type HT-CA, Type HT-SS and Type H models under short-circuit current impacts at the LNG cooling temperature (85 K-90 K). An experimental platform is designed and established for the ampacity tests of HTS tapes above LN2 cooling temperature (77 K). The AC over-current impact tests at 85 K-90 K are carried out on each sample of Bi-2223 tapes respectively, and the experimental results are analyzed and compared to evaluate their performances under different operating conditions. The results indicate that the Type HT-CA tape can withstand 50 Hz short-circuit current impact with the amplitude of 1108 A (10 times of critical current Ic ) for 100 ms at 90 K, and its resistance is the smallest of the three tested samples under similar current impacts. Therefore, the Type HT-CA Bi-2223 tape is the optimal superconductor of the HTS power cable in the hybrid energy transmission pipeline.