AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF FLUE-GAS INJECTION ON NATURAL DRAFT COOLING-TOWER PERFORMANCE

This paper addresses an investigation of flue gas injection on natural draft cooling towel performance through numerical simulation. The con trol volume finite difference method was used for discretizing the gov erning equations in axisymmetric form on a boundary-fitted grid. The f ive independent variables addressed in this study are flue gas flow ra te, flue gas temperature, radial injection location, injection orienta tion and liquid entrainment in the flue gas. Tile flue gas temperature was found to have the most significant effect on tower performance (c old water temperature), because it strongly affects the buoyancy withi n the tower. The total air flow through a tower is driven by buoyancy forces, and the cooling performance is a strong function of the air fl ow rate.