CFD Investigation on Parameters Affecting the Thermal Performance of Mechanical Draft Cooling Towers in District Cooling Plants (LB-17-C069)

District cooling means producing cooled water in a centralized plant and distributing it in pipelines to a number of buildings to cool the air in each building’s air conditioning system. This paper investigates the effect of the wind speed and direction on cooling towers' thermal performance. Moreover, the distance between stacks, cooling tower fan speed, and effect of wind barriers were also simulated. A three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of a power plant cooling towers is utilized to assess the effect of flow circulation air on entering air wet bulb temperature under different ambient conditions and orientations.