Natural draft dry cooling tower modelling

Predictions based on scale analysis of a natural draft dry cooling tower (NDDCT) are compared with those obtained numerically and experimentally. Experiments were conducted in a lab-scale model built for our NDDCT where CFD-ACE commercially available software was used to simulate the flow in and around the heat exchangers modelled as a porous medium. Both vertical and horizontal arrangements of the finned-tube bundles are examined. The three independent approaches lead to very close predictions for the air velocity and temperature at the exit from the cooling tower. The results of this study will be useful for future work on the development of air-cooled condensers for geothermal power plants in Australia