Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Direct dry cooling system through hybrid ventilation for improving

cooling efficiency in power plants
Yanqiang Kong, Weijia Wang, Xianwei Huang, Lijun Yang ⇑, Xiaoze Du, Yongping Yang
Key Laboratory of Condition Monitoring and Control for Power Plant Equipments of Ministry of Education, School of Energy Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China
Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

h i g h l i g h t s

Hybrid ventilation direct dry cooling systems (C-HVDDCS and R-HVDDCS) are proposed.

Hot plume recirculation is avoided completely for both C-HVDDCS and R-HVDDCS.

Reversed flows in upwind condenser cells are effectively restrained for C-HVDDCS.

HVDDCS can improve cooling efficiency greatly compared with conventional ACCs.

C-HVDDCS shows the optimum thermo-flow performances under various ambient conditions.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The thermo-flow performances of conventional air-cooled condenser (ACC) using mechanical ventilation
Received 27 November 2016 are basically susceptible to ambient winds due to its geometrical flaws, so more attentions have been
Revised 14 February 2017 paid to weakening such unfavorable effects, but the hybrid ventilation has never been considered.
Accepted 10 March 2017
Based on representative 2  600 MW power generating units, two types of hybrid ventilation direct
Available online 18 March 2017
dry cooling systems (HVDDCS) utilizing the buoyancy force from the cooling tower, circular-type and
rectangular-type, are developed. Furthermore, the thermo-flow performances in three wind directions
Keywords:
of 0°, 45° and 90° are presented and compared with the conventional ACCs. The results show that the
Air-cooled condenser
Hybrid ventilation
hot plume recirculation of the peripheral condenser cells for HVDDCS can be avoided, thus the inlet air
Ambient wind temperature of air-cooled condensers is reduced. For circular HVDDCS, the reversed flows in upwind con-
Thermo-flow performances denser cells are much weakened, leading to increased heat rejection and improved cooling performance
Turbine back pressure in any case. In the wind direction of 0°, the rectangular HVDDCS shows a superior performance to those in
the wind directions of 45° and 90°, so it is applicable to the region with a prevailing wind direction. The
HVDDCS could be recommended for the potential engineering application thanks to its more energy effi-
cient performance.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Direct dry cooling system has been widely applied to power
plants throughout the arid regions short of water resources,
whereby ambient air is used instead of water as the cooling med-
ium directly [1]. The conventional air-cooled condenser in a power
plant consists of dozens of condenser cells in a rectangular array.
For each condenser cell, the finned tube bundles are arranged in
the A-frame form with an axial flow fan below, so that ambient
air can be driven to pass through the finned tube bundles to
remove the heat rejection from exhaust steam. However, under
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yanglj@ncepu.edu.cn (L. Yang).
the wind conditions, the cooling air shows difficult to pass
perpendicularly across the axial flow fans. Therefore, the current
ACCs are basically susceptible to ambient winds due to its
geometrical flaws [2].
In past decades, the wind effects have been thoroughly investi-
gated on the thermo-flow performances of the conventional ACCs.
Yang et al. [3] numerically studied the impacts of wind speed and
direction on the thermo-flow performances of air-cooled con-
densers in a power plant, proving that the wind effects on the
upwind condenser cells and hot plume recirculation flows play
key roles in performance deterioration. Duvenhage and Kröger
[4] studied the wind effects on the fan performance and exhaust
plume recirculation in air-cooled condensers, finding that the
crosswind across the ACCs reduces the air flow rate, and also

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.03.067
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268
Nomenclature
A heat transfer area (m2)
C constant in turbulence model
e exponent of the wind speed in the power-law equation
fn polynomial coefficient for the pressure rise of fan
gn polynomial coefficient for the tangential velocity
g gravitational acceleration (m s2)
G turbulence kinetic energy generation (m2 s2)
h convection heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1)
hn polynomial coefficient for the convection heat transfer
coefficient
H enthalpy (J kg1)
I turbulence intensity
k turbulent kinetic energy (m2 s2)
kL flow loss coefficient
m mass flow rate (kg/s)
P pressure (Pa)
Q heat transfer rate (W)
rn polynomial coefficient of non-dimensional loss coeffi-
cient
S source term
T temperature (K)
vj component of velocity (m/s)
strengthens the exhaust plume recirculation. Gu et al. [5] investi-
gated the hot plume recirculation by a wind tunnel experiment,
showing that the wind speed and direction, as well as the platform
height all show significant impacts. By numerical simulation,
Hotchkiss et al. [6] investigated the cross-flow effects on the per-
formance of axial flow fans, concluding that the fan efficiency is
reduced and fan-blade loading is affected by the cross-flow
induced off-axis inflow. The aforementioned works all prove that
the ambient winds may significantly cripple the cooling efficiency
of conventional ACCs.
In order to weaken such wind impacts on the thermo-flow per-
formances of ACCs, various measures have been proposed. Wang
et al. [7] investigated the air flow and temperature fields in a
power plant, and suggested the installation of a side board below
or above the fan platform to restrain the hot plume recirculation.
Zhang et al. [8] suggested three types of windbreak meshes to
weaken the wind adverse effects, finding that the windbreak mesh
in a rectangle-type configuration can well prevent the periphery
fans from suffering winds. Gao et al. [9] suggested the air-flow
guiding devices under the air-cooled condenser platform to
improve the inlet flow distortions of upwind fans. Gu et al. [10]
studied the effects of various roof windbreak structures on the
cooling performances of ACCs and obtained the optimal geome-
tries. What’s more, Bredell et al. [11] and Yang et al. [12] proposed
to extend the inner and outer walkways, which can effectively
improve the cooling capability of ACCs.
As a matter of fact, it is the rectangular array configuration of
the conventional ACCs that deteriorates the thermo-flow perfor-
mances of the windward as well as the periphery condenser cells
under the wind conditions, so some novel constructions of air-
cooled condenser have been investigated recently. Zhang et al.
[13] proposed a ‘‘V” frame condenser cell to form a favorable face
velocity distribution, in which the axial flow fan is installed under
the intersection of two finned-tube bundles rather than the cen-
troid of cell chamber. Lee et al. [14,15] studied the VV-shaped
finned-tube condenser coils with an upper fan, which can effec-
tively improve the heat transfer performance. Chen et al. [16] sug-
gested a novel layout of air-cooled condensers, by which the air
flow rate increases conspicuously compared with the conventional
255
v velocity magnitude (m/s)
xj Cartesian coordinate (m)
z height above the ground (m)
Greek symbols
e turbulence dissipation rate (m2 s3)
l dynamic viscosity (kg m1 s1)
q density (kg m3)
r turbulent Prandtl number
U diffusion coefficient (kg m1 s1)
u scalar variable
Subscripts
a air
avg average
c condenser
r radiator
s steam
T turbulence
wa saturated water
h tangential direction
ACCs. Yang et al. [17] investigated a trapezoidal array of air-cooled
condenser to restrain the adverse wind impacts.
As also well known, the cooling performance of conventional
ACC drops sharply at high ambient temperatures, due to the
reduced temperature difference between the exhaust steam and
ambient air. In general, if the ambient temperature increases by
10 °C, the net power efficiency will be reduced by about 4.2%. Con-
sidering this, Bustamante et al. [18] proposed two hybrid wet-dry
cooling systems at high ambient temperatures, pointing out that
the hybrid cooling can improve the ACC performance with a min-
imal water consumption. Besides, Heyns [19] introduced a direct
air cooled dry-wet dephlegmator condenser at different ambient
temperatures and achieved a measureable enhancement in cooling
performance at the high ambient temperature.
Conclusively, although the conventional ACC shows the superi-
ority to wet cooling system, it suffers the low thermal efficiency
from ambient winds as well as its own configuration defects. Fur-
thermore, the aforementioned researches mostly focused on the
auxiliary facilities such as the air flow leading plates, windbreak
wall and walkway. Even though some novel proposals of ACCs have
been investigated, has never the hybrid ventilation technology
been studied before. In this research, two direct dry cooling sys-
tems through hybrid ventilation are suggested based on
2  600 MW power generating units, which may enhance the cool-
ing performance of the current fan-driven ACCs by adding cooling
tower shell over the heat exchanger platform. For the innovative
HVDDCS, the cooling tower increases the buoyancy force of cooling
air, which helps more air flow through the air-cooled condensers
and then take away more heat. Besides, the hot plume recirculation
of peripheral condenser cells can also be eliminated thoroughly. In
consequence, the HVDDCS will improve the thermal efficiency of
the cold end system substantially since the turbine back pressure
can be much reduced. As further noticed, the proposed HVDDCS
can allow fewer heat exchanger areas than conventional ACCs
and also smaller tower shell than natural draft dry cooling system
(NDDCS) to meet the cooling requirement, therefore may reduce
the capital cost for its potential engineering application. This inves-
tigation of HVDDCS can be beneficial to the design optimization of
direct dry cooling system in power plants.
256 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268

Fig. 1. Schematics of three direct dry cooling systems. (a) Conventional ACCs, (b) R- HVDDCS, (c) C-HVDDCS.
 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268 257

Fig. 2. Condenser cell and array. (a) A-frame condenser cell, (b) rectangular array, (c) circular array.
258 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268

2. Modeling and methods a rectangular array, pillar supports and wind-break wall, as shown
in Fig.1(a). For this configuration, the ambient winds may incur
2.1. Physical model the off-axis flows and hot plume recirculation especially for the
windward and peripheral condenser cells, and impede the cooling
The conventional ACCs and two proposed HVDDCSs based on a efficiency of ACCs. For the proposed rectangular-type and
2  600 MW power plant, are schematically shown in Fig. 1. The circular-type HVDDCSs as shown in Fig. 1(b and c), the cooling
traditional ACCs consist of dozens of condenser cells arranged in tower is configured above the fan platform, so that more air can
be driven through the heat exchanger bundles by both the rota-
Table 1 tional fans and cooling tower shell, thus taking more heat from
Geometric parameters of three direct dry cooling systems.
the condenser cells. For convenience, these two types of HVDDCSs
Parameter Conventional R-HVDDCS C-HVDDCS are appointed as R-HVDDCS (rectangular-type) and C-HVDDCS
Wind-break and tower shell (circular-type).
Wind-break wall/Tower height (m) 12 150 150 For cooling efficiency comparisons, the condenser cells of the
Area ratio of outlet to inlet – 0.49 0.49 conventional ACCs and two proposed HVDDCSs are totally the
Air-cooled condensers
same in geometric structure and size. Besides, the simplified A-
Fan platform height (m) 45 45 45
Number of fans 112 112 112 frame condenser cell is shown in Fig. 2(a). All condenser cells for
Fan diameter (m) 9.144 9.144 9.144 ACCs, as well as R-HVDDCS and C-HVDDCS are shown in Fig. 2(b
Height of support structures (m) 40 40 40 and c), with the serial numbers of condenser cells labeled. Due to
Number of support structures 32 32 32 the symmetric geometries of these dry cooling systems, three char-
acteristic wind directions of 0°, 45° and 90° are introduced, so as to
fully investigate the wind effects on the thermo-flow perfor-
Table 2
mances. Additionally, the geometric parameters and designed
Design working conditions of direct dry cooling system.
working conditions are listed in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.
Parameters Value The computational domains of the three dry cooling systems
Atmospheric dry-bulb temperature (°C) 14.5 are set large enough so as to eliminate the unrealistic effects of
Atmospheric relative humidity (%) 63 the domain boundaries on the air flow fields. Taking C-HVDDCS
Atmospheric pressure (kPa) 101.03 as an example, Fig. 3 shows the cuboid-shape computational
Exhaust steam mass flow rate (kg/s) 345.9
Rated rotational speed of axial flow fan (r/min) 79
domains with the dimension of 2000 m  2000 m  1000 m
(length  width  height) in the absence and presence of winds.

Fig. 3. Computational domain and boundary conditions. (a) Without winds, (b) with winds.
 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268 259

The computational meshes are generated with the multi-block 2.2. Mathematical model
hybrid approach by the commercial software GAMBIT. For the cen-
tral part with the dry cooling system, the tetrahedral unstructured In this study, the lumped parameter radiator model is used to
grids are adopted due to their complex geometric structures. In describe the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the finned
general, the mesh is refined near the heat exchanger area to cap- tube bundles in air-cooled condensers. Both the pressure drop
ture the air flow characteristics, and the coarse grids are taken in and heat transfer coefficient are specified as the functions of the
the extended regions to save computational cost. The grid indepen- face velocity. For the pressure drop Dp [20]:
dence is tested with the cells of 1,244,652, 2,320,673, 3,991,620
1
and 5,084,042 for the R-HVDDCS model at the wind speed of Dp ¼ kL qv 2 ð1Þ
2
4 m/s in the wind direction of 0°. The highest difference of total
mass flow rate shows about 3.35% between the maximum and where q is the air density, v is the face velocity normal to the radi-
minimum mesh schemes. Besides, for the latter two dense grid ator surface. kL is the loss coefficient, and can be expressed as a
solutions, the total mass flow rate of cooling air varies only about polynomial function:
0.49%, so the final grid number is set about 3,991,620. For the con- X
N
ventional ACCs and C-HVDDCS, the final grid numbers take kL ¼ r n v n1 ð2Þ
3,193,805 and 4,403,648 respectively. n¼1

Table 3
Summary of governing equations.

Equations u Uu Su

Continuity 1 0 0
h      i
x-momentum vi le @p
 @x þ 13 @
le @@xvii þ @x@ j le @@xvij þ @x@k le @@xv ki
@xi
h      i
i

y-momentum vj le @p
 @x þ 13 @
le @@xvji þ @x@ j le @@xvjj þ @x@ k le @@xv kj
@xi
h      i
j

z-momentum vk le @p
 @x þ 13 @ @v i
le @x @v
þ @x@ j le @xkj þ @x@ k le @@xvkk þ qg
k @xi k

Energy cpT le/rT 0

Turbulence kinetic energy k l + lT/r Gk þ Gb  qe
Turbulence dissipation rate e l + lT/re qC 1 Se  qC 2 kþepffiffiffi
ffi e2

me þ C 1e k C 3e Gb

Fig. 4. Variable fields for three dry cooling systems in absence of winds. (a) Flow fields, (b) temperature fields.
260 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268
where N is set to be 3, rn is the polynomial factor and has the follow-
ing value, r1 = 71.689, r2 = -31.707, r3 = 4.798.
The rejected heat from the radiator to the cooing air is given as
[21]:
Q r ¼ hAr ðT s  T a;d Þ ð3Þ
where Ar is the heat transfer area of the radiator. Ts is the condensing
temperature of the exhaust steam in the air-cooled condenser. Ta,d is
the air temperature downstream of the radiator. The convective heat
transfer coefficient h can be specified as the following form [20]:
X
N rqv u ¼ rðCu ruÞ þ Su þ S0u
h¼ hn v n1 ð4Þ
n¼1
where hn is the polynomial coefficient, with h1 = 536.993,
h2 = 2013.089, h3 = 97.772.
For the axial flow fan, the pressure rise is formulated as the
polynomial form of the axial velocity vax [20].
X
N tum sink and energy source term Su0 should be appended due to
Dp ¼ f n v n1
ax ð5Þ
n¼1
where fn is the polynomial coefficient. By fitting the fan perfor-
mance curve, the polynomial coefficients are obtained as
f1 = 195.596, f2 = 19.998, f3 = 3.967, f4 = 0.570, f5 = 0.022.
For the three-dimensional aerodynamic simulation of axial flow
fan, the radial velocity plays a negligible role in the aerodynamic
behavior, so can be ignored. The tangential velocity vh should be
imposed on the fan surface to generate swirl flows, which is
expressed by the following empirical equation.
Fig. 5. Streamlines and pressure fields for three dry cooling systems at wind speed of 12 m/s. (a) In wind direction of 0°, (b) in wind direction 90°.
X
N
vh ¼ gn rn ð6Þ
n¼1
where gn is the polynomial coefficient. If the geometric structure of
the fan blade is known, the tangential velocity at various radiuses
can be obtained, so the polynomial coefficients are acquired.
g-1 = 15.1, g0 = 25.76, g1 = 11.791, g2 = 4.321, g3 = 0.354.
The steady state governing equations of the air flow and heat
transfer for these three dry cooling systems take the following
form.
ð7Þ
The realizable k-e model is adopted for closing the governing
equations, due to its good prediction for the turbulence flow of vis-
cous fluid. The dependent variable u equals 1, v, cpt, k and e for the
continuity, momentum, energy and turbulence equations respec-
tively. Cu and Su are the diffusion coefficient and source terms,
as shown in Table 3. For the radiator zone, the additional momen-
the heat exchanger effects.
The boundary conditions of the governing equations are sup-
plied as shown in Fig. 3. Under the wind conditions, the windward
surface is set as the velocity inlet, with the wind speed of vz at the
height of z (m) computed by the following power-law equation
[16].
 z e
vz ¼ vw ð8Þ
10
 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268
where vw represents the wind speed at the reference height of 10 m,
while the exponent e means the wind speed profile index with the
value of 0.2. Besides, at the windward surface, the turbulence
kinetic energy k and dissipation rate e are calculated as follows [16]:
k ¼ 1:5ðv av g IÞ2
 1
k lT2
e ¼ qc l
l l
where vavg is the mean velocity, cl is a constant of 0.09. As for the
turbulence intensity I and viscosity ratio lt/l at the computation
domain inlet, they are very small and set as 10% and 1.1 respectively
in this work. The leeward surface is given as the outflow boundary,
and the other three planes as the symmetry boundaries. In the
absence of winds, the four side surfaces are set as the pressure inlet
boundaries, and the top plane as the pressure outlet with the zero
gauge pressure. In addition, the solid walls of ground, cooling tower
shell, wind-break wall, condenser cell wall and fan shell, are set as
adiabatic and no slip wall boundaries with the standard wall func-
tion adopted.
The continuum, momentum, energy, turbulent kinetic energy
and dissipation rate governing equations are all discretized with
the second-order upwind differencing scheme, and the coupled
pressure-velocity is dealt with the SIMPLE algorithm. A
divergence-free criterion of 104 based on the scaled residual is
prescribed, moreover, the mass flow rate through the entire dry
cooling system is additionally used to monitor the reasonable con-
vergence. When the relative error between the adjacent two mass
flow rates is always less than 104, the solution can be accepted.
Fig. 6. Temperature fields for three dry cooling systems at wind speed of 12 m/s. (a) In wind direction of 0°, (b) in wind direction 90°.
261
2.3. Iteration process
The thermo-flow performances of air cooled condensers vary
with ambient conditions, therefore the turbine back pressure will
change correspondingly. In response, this changed turbine back
ð9Þ pressure can influence the air-side velocity and temperature fields.
As a result, the numerical simulation is an iterative procedure. Dur-
ing the iteration, the exhaust steam flow rate is set constant due to
ð10Þ
its little change with turbine back pressure. Above all, the turbine
back pressure pB is assumed, so the condensation temperature,
exhaust steam enthalpy and the saturated water enthalpy can be
obtained. The heat rejection from the exhaust steam can be calcu-
lated as follows.
Q c ¼ ms ðHs  Hwa Þ ð11Þ
where Qc is the heat rejection of condenser, ms is the exhaust steam
flow rate, Hs and Hwa are the exhaust steam enthalpy and saturated
water enthalpy. With the numerical process, the air-side cooling
capacity Qc0 can be obtained. If the relative error between the steam
heat rejection and air cooling capacity shows smaller than 0.5%, the
assumed back pressure can be accepted. Otherwise, the procedure
should restart.
2.4. Experimental validation
Due to the frequently changing ambient conditions, it is very
difficult to make on site tests on the thermo-flow performances
of air-cooled condensers. In our previous work, a spot experiment
based on the conventional ACCs in a 4  600 MW power plant was
262 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268

carried out [3,12], by which the inlet air temperature of a represen-
tative condenser cell was measured at the full output of the power
generating unit. According to the actual layouts of ACCs and main
buildings in this power plant, as well as the ambient temperature,
wind speed and direction at that time, the corresponding models of
the direct dry cooling system were developed and numerically
simulated. The computed inlet air temperature of the same con-
denser cell as the measured was achieved and compared with
the experimental data, showing that the numerical results and
experimental data agree well with each other.
In this work, the modeling and numerical methods for the
2  600 MW power plant are exactly same as those taken for the
aforementioned numerical simulation. It proves in another way
that the numerical models and approaches for both the conven-
tional ACCs and proposed HVDDCSs are reliable and accurate
enough for the air flow and heat transfer predictions.
3. Thermo-flow performances
In order to compare the thermo-flow performances of the two
types of proposed HVDDCS with the conventional ACCs, the veloc-
ity, pressure and temperature fields of cooling air, and the inlet air
temperatures of axial flow fans are presented. As illustrative cases,
two typical wind directions of 0° and 90° at the wind speed of
12 m/s, as well as in the absence of winds are adopted. Meanwhile,
the air mass flow rates of various condenser cells and the turbine
back pressure are analyzed.
3.1. Variable fields
In the absence of winds, the flow and temperature fields are
shown in Fig. 4 for the conventional ACCs and two HVDDCSs. As

Fig. 7. Flow and temperature fields (unit in K) of condenser cells in Column 9 in wind direction of 90°. (a) Conventional ACCs, (b) R-HVDDCS, (c) C-HVDDCS.
 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268 263

observed, the variable fields for the three dry cooling systems show the condenser cells in Row 1 and Row 2 show extremely high,
almost symmetric owing to their symmetric structures. From Fig. 4 but it becomes better for R-HVDDCS because of the additional
(a), it can be seen that the pressure difference of the heat exchanger buoyancy force of tower shell. Moreover, only the condenser cell
for the proposed C-HVDDCS is higher than the R-HVDDCS as well as in Row 1 is severely affected by crosswinds for C-HVDDCS, and
the conventional ACCs, implying the highest driving force for cool- the exhaust air has a clearly lower temperature than R-HVDDCS
ing air through the air-cooled condensers. As a matter of fact, the air and conventional ACCs, resulting from the much higher mass flow
flows are coupled with the thermal performance, so the tempera- rate of cooling air.
ture fields are symmetric correspondingly, as shown in Fig. 4(b).
As also noticed, the lowest air temperature of about 306 K in the 3.2. Fan inlet temperature
whole field for the proposed C-HVDDCS is presented, which is
nearly 3 K lower than that of the conventional ACCs. In addition, Fig. 8 shows the inlet air temperatures of axial flow fans for the
owing to the expanded uniform air flows, the C-HVDDCS has lower three dry cooling systems in the absence of winds. As can be seen,
air temperatures than R-HVDDCS, especially in the flank condenser the inlet air temperatures are completely same and almost equal to
cells. As a result, the combined driving forces by the axial flow fans the ambient temperature for all axial flow fans, except the periph-
and cooling tower shell lead to higher cooling efficiencies for the ery fans with a little higher values for the conventional ACCs. That’s
two HVDDCSs than conventional ACCs under no wind conditions, because the off-axis induced air flow distortions for the periphery
with the C-HVDDCS showing the highest. fans lead to the slightly increased inlet air temperature.
With ambient winds, the thermo-flow performances are seri- Fig. 9 shows the inlet air temperatures of axial flow fans for the
ously affected as shown in Fig. 5 at the wind speed of 12 m/s. For three dry cooling systems at the wind speed of 12 m/s. As can be
these dry cooling systems in both the wind directions of 0° and seen in the wind directions of 0° and 90°, the inlet air temperatures
90°, the strong crosswinds must turn their flow directions severely of the bilateral condenser cells of conventional ACCs are conspicu-
to flow through the upwind condenser cells, which intensify the ously higher than those of the proposed HVDDCS, especially the
flow distortion and deteriorate the flow fields at the fan inlet con- downstream ones, due to the serious hot plume recirculation.
spicuously. What’s more, for the conventional ACCs the ambient
winds pass directly over the condenser cells, and then lead to the
high pressure fields on the top, which can prevent the cooling air
from flowing across the finned tube bundles. While for the two pro-
posed HVDDCSs in the wind direction of 0°, the cooling air flows
almost perpendicular to the axial flow fans with the lower pressure
above the condenser cells, owing to the wind-breaker effects and
additional buoyancy force from cooling tower shell, as shown in
Fig. 5(a). Consequently, the air flow rates increase for the two
HVDDCSs compared with the conventional ACCs. As further
observed, more air flows through the C-HVDDCS than the R-
HVDDCS, since the number of upwind condenser cells is reduced,
thus the inlet air distortion is weakened. For the R-HVDDCS in the
wind direction of 90°, the upwind condenser cell heat transfer areas
become higher than in the wind direction of 0°, with 16 condenser
cells faced with ambient winds. In such a case, more condenser cells
are affected by crosswinds with reverse flows also aggravated in the
frontal condenser cells, thus leading to more deteriorated thermo-
flow performances than those in the wind direction of 0°, as shown
in Fig. 5(b). But the R-HVDDCS still has better variable fields than
the conventional ACCs, since the cooling tower shell restrains the
parallel crosswinds above the condenser cells. Besides, the best
air flow fields are presented for the proposed C-HVDDCS, showing
that it is less affected by the ambient winds.
The temperature fields for the three dry cooling systems at the
wind speed of 12 m/s are shown in Fig. 6. In the wind direction of
0°, both the proposed R-HVDDCS and C-HVDDCS have the lower
temperature regions than conventional ACCs, as shown in Fig. 6
(a). However, in the wind direction of 90°, more condenser cells
face directly toward ambient winds for the conventional ACCs
and R-HDDCS, and the cooling air can hardly flow through the cor-
responding axial flow fans, therefore leading to the unexpected
high temperature regions, as shown in Fig. 6(b). While as clearly
observed, the C-HVDDCS presents much lower temperature fields
due to the better air flow performance as aforementioned above.
For a deep investigation of the thermo-flow details, Fig. 7 pre-
sents the flow and temperature fields for the upwind condenser
cells at the wind speed of 12 m/s in the wind direction of 90°,
where the arrow length stands for the velocity magnitude and
the color denotes the temperature. It can be seen that the reversed
flows are formed in the upwind condenser cells for the three dry
Fig. 8. Inlet air temperatures of axial flow fans for three dry cooling systems in
cooling systems, which will result in the deteriorated thermal per-
absence of winds.
formance. For the conventional ACCs, the air temperatures inside
264 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268
Fig. 10 presents the flow and temperature details of some periph-
eral condenser cells in the wind direction of 90°, from which can be
seen such hot plume recirculation can be effectively avoided for
both the R-HVDDCS and C-HVDDCS owing to the enhanced venti-
lation by the tower shell. In the wind direction of 0° for conven-
tional ACCs and R-HVDDCS, the inlet air temperatures of the
upwind axial flow fans in Row 1 and Row 2 show high, however
in the wind direction of 90°, the high temperature area stretches
further, and most fans in Columns (1–3) and certain ones in Col-
umn 4 can be severely affected by crosswinds, as shown in Fig. 9.
While for the proposed C-HVDDCS in both wind directions, only
the axial flow fans in Row 1 and Column 1, and several ones in
Rows (2–3) and Columns (2–3) are affected by crosswinds, so the
C-HVDDCS will have highly improved cooling performance com-
pared with the conventional ACCs and R-HVDDCS.
3.3. Mass flow rate
For the three dry cooling systems, the air mass flow rate of each
condenser cell is specifically presented at the wind speed of 12 m/s
in the wind directions of 0° and 90° so as to clearly compare their
thermo-flow performances, as shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
Fig. 9. Inlet air temperatures of axial flow fans for three dry cooling systems at wind speed of 12 m/s. (a) In wind direction of 0°, (b) in wind direction of 90°.
In the wind direction of 0°, the windward condenser cells of
both conventional ACCs and R-HVDDCS have negative air mass
flow rates, whereas the most leeward ones of R-HVDDCS present
higher values than those of conventional ACCs, as shown in
Fig. 11(a and b). For C-HVDDCS shown in Fig. 11(c), most con-
denser cells own high air mass flow rates except few ones in Col-
umn 1, showing that it is superior to other two systems in
thermo-flow performances.
In the wind direction of 90°, the flow performances of upwind
condenser cells for conventional ACCs and R-HVDDCS are seriously
deteriorated compared with those in the wind direction of 0°, as
shown in Fig. 12. For the conventional ACCs, Fig. 12(a) shows that
most condenser cells in Row 1 have negative air mass flow rates,
besides for the R-HVDDCS, the negative values appear for most con-
denser cells in the first two rows, as shown in Fig. 12(b). But the
downstream condenser cells of R-HVDDCS have conspicuously high
air mass flow rates than the conventional ACCs, implying a better
flow performance as a whole. What’s more, for R-HVDDCS the mass
flow rate increases rapidly along the wind direction due to the
decaying wind effects. From Fig. 12(c) it can be seen that, few con-
denser cells of the C-HVDDCS are affected by crosswinds in the
wind direction of 90°, showing similar to the wind direction of 0°.
 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268 265

Fig. 10. Flow and temperature fields (unit in K) of peripheral condenser cells for three dry cooling systems in wind direction of 90°. (a) In Row 6 of Conventional ACCs, (b) in
Row 6 of R-HVDDCS, (c) in Row 11 of C-HVDDCS.

As further pointed out, the total mass flow rates equal
39347.9 kg/s, 44561.2 kg/s, and 65260.85 kg/s for the conventional
ACCs, R-HVDDCS, and C-HVDDCS at the wind speed of 12 m/s in
the wind direction of 90°. It shows that the flow performances of
the HVDDCSs are superior to the conventional ACCs, with the
C-HVDDCS having the best performance.
3.4. Turbine back pressure
For the conventional ACCs and proposed HVDDCS, the turbine
back pressure can be obtained on the basis of the heat balance of
the exhaust steam and cooling air, which varies greatly with the
wind speed and direction. With the ambient winds, the turbine
back pressures for the three dry cooling systems are compared at
the small wind speed of 4 m/s and high wind speed of 12 m/s in
various wind directions, as shown in Fig. 13, while in the absence
of winds, they are listed in Table 4.
As clearly observed from Table 4, the proposed HVDDCSs show
lower back pressures than conventional ACCs with no winds.
What’s more, the turbine back pressure for C-HVDDCS is 0.7 kPa
and 2.7 kPa lower than the R-HVDDCS and conventional ACCs
respectively, implying that the best cooling efficiency can be
achieved for C-HVDDCS.
From Fig. 13(a) and (b), it can be seen that the turbine back
pressure basically increases with increasing the wind speed for
these three dry cooling systems, due to more serious wind effects.
For the C-HVDDCS, the back pressure is always minimum at both
the wind speeds of 4 m/s and 12 m/s in various wind directions.
266 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268

Fig. 11. Mass flow rates of axial flow fans for three dry cooling systems at wind
speed of 12 m/s in wind direction of 0°. (a) Conventional ACCs, (b) R-HVDDCS,
(c) C-HVDDCS. Fig. 12. Mass flow rates of axial flow fans for three dry cooling systems at wind speed
of 12 m/s in wind direction 90°. (a) Conventional ACCs, (b) R-HVDDCS, (c) C-HVDDCS.
 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268
Fig. 13. Turbine back pressures in various wind directions. (a) 4 m/s, (b) 12 m/s.
Table 4
Turbine back pressures for three dry cooling systems in the absence of winds.
Conventional R-HVDDCS C-HVDDCS
pB (kPa) 12.5 10.5 9.8
Furthermore, the back pressure for the C-HVDDCS varies little with
wind direction, and changes not conspicuous with the wind speed,
thus is advantageous to the safe and energy efficient running of the
power generating unit. For both the conventional ACCs and R-
HVDDCS, the back pressures vary widely with the wind directions,
and the most unfavorable energy efficiency is presented in the
wind direction of 90°. But it must be pointed out that the proposed
R-HVDDCS still has a better cooling performance than the conven-
tional ACCs, since the back pressures show 5.4 kPa and 7.24 kPa
lower than conventional ACCs at the wind speeds of 4 m/s and
12 m/s respectively. What’s more, only in the wind direction of
0°, is the turbine back pressure for the R-HVDDCS almost same
as that for the C-HVDDCS due to its less windward condenser cells.
In summary, the proposed C-HVDDCS can improve the energy
efficiency of power generating unit remarkably under various
ambient wind conditions.
267
4. Conclusion
Two hybrid ventilation direct dry cooing systems (C-HVDDCS
and R-HVDDCS), which incorporate the mechanical ventilation of
axial flow fans and buoyancy force from tower shell, are proposed
and compared with the conventional ACCs.
Under wind conditions, the hot plume recirculation at both
sides of the condenser cells of the HVDDCS can be avoided com-
pletely due to the additional wind-break effects and buoyancy
force provided by tower shell, which results in lower inlet air tem-
peratures of these axial flow fans. For the C-HVDDCS, the reversed
flows in the upwind condenser cells are weakened due to the cir-
cular array of air cooled condensers, resulting in increased heat
rejections of these condenser cells.
The R-HVDDCS can improve the cooling efficiency to a certain
extent compared with ACCs, even though it has more deteriorated
thermo-flow performances in the wind direction of 90° than those
in the wind direction of 0°. The most energy-efficient performance
can be achieved for the C-HVDDCS at various wind speeds and in
various wind directions, therefore it is recommended in future
practical engineering.
Acknowledgments
The financial supports for this research, from the National Nat-
ural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51476055) and the
National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No.
2015CB251503), are gratefully acknowledged.
References
[1] C. Butler, R. Grimes, The effect of wind on the optimal design and performance
of a modular air-cooled condenser for a concentrated solar power plant,
Energy 68 (2014) 886–895.
[2] L.H. Xiao, Z.H. Ge, X.Z. Du, L.J. Yang, Z. Xu, Operation of air-cooling CHP
generating unit under the effect of natural wind, Appl. Therm. Eng. 107 (2016)
827–836.
[3] L.J. Yang, X.Z. Du, Y.P. Yang, Wind effect on the thermo-flow performances and
its decay characteristics for air-cooled condensers in a power plant, Int. J.
Therm. Sci. 53 (2012) 175–187.
[4] K. Duvenhage, D.G. Kröger, The influence of wind on the performance of forced
draught air-cooled heat exchangers, J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 62 (1996) 259–
277.
[5] Z. Gu, X. Chen, W. Lubitz, Y. Li, W. Luo, Wind tunnel simulation of exhaust
recirculation in an air-cooling system at a large power plant, Int. J. Therm. Sci.
46 (2007) 308–317.
[6] P.J. Hotchkiss, C.J. Meyer, T.W.V. Backström, Numerical investigation into the
effect of cross-flow on the performance of axial flow fans in forced draught air-
cooled heat exchangers, Appl. Therm. Eng. 26 (2006) 200–208.
[7] Q.W. Wang, D.J. Zhang, M. Zeng, M. Lin, L.H. Tang, CFD simulation on a thermal
power plant with air-cooled heat exchanger system in north China, Eng.
Comput. 25 (2008) 342–365.
[8] X. Zhang, H. Chen, Effects of windbreak mesh on thermo-flow characteristics of
air-cooled steam condenser under windy conditions, Appl. Therm. Eng. 85
(2015) 21–32.
[9] X. Gao, C. Zhang, J. Wei, B. Yu, Performance prediction of an improved air-
cooled steam condenser with deflector under strong wind, Appl. Therm. Eng.
30 (2010) 2663–2669.
[10] H. Gu, Z. Zhe, H. Wang, C. Qi, A numerical study on the effect of roof
windbreak structures in an air-cooled system, Appl. Therm. Eng. 90 (2015)
684–693.
[11] J.R. Bredell, D.G. Kröger, G.D. Thiart, Numerical investigation of fan
performance in a forced draft air-cooled steam condenser, Appl. Therm. Eng.
26 (2006) 846–852.
[12] L.J. Yang, X.Z. Du, Y.P. Yang, Influences of wind-break wall configurations upon
flow and heat transfer characteristics of air-cooled condensers in a power
plant, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 50 (2011) 2050–2061.
[13] Z. Zhang, J. Yang, Y. Wang, A favorable face velocity distribution and a
V-frame cell for power plant air-cooled condensers, Appl. Therm. Eng. 87
(2015) 1–9.
[14] T.S. Lee, W.C. Wu, S.K. Wang, Improved energy performance of air-cooled
water chillers with innovative condenser coil configurations – Part I: CFD
simulation, Int. J. Refrig 35 (2012) 2199–2211.
[15] T.S. Lee, W.C. Wu, J.C. Jiang, Improved energy performance of air-cooled water
chillers with innovative condenser coil configurations – Part II: experimental
validation, Int. J. Refrig. 35 (2012) 2212–2222.
268 Y. Kong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 119 (2017) 254–268

[16] L. Chen, L. Yang, X. Du, Y. Yang, A novel layout of air-cooled condensers to
improve thermo-flow performances, Appl. Energy 165 (2016) 244–259.
[17] L.J. Yang, M.H. Wang, X.Z. Du, Y.P. Yang, Trapezoidal array of air-cooled
condensers to restrain the adverse impacts of ambient winds in a power plant,
Appl. Energy 99 (2012) 402–413.
[18] J.G. Bustamante, A.S. Rattner, S. Garimella, Achieving near-water-cooled power
plant performance with air-cooled condensers, Appl. Therm. Eng. 105 (2015)
362–371.
[19] J.A. Heyns, Performance characteristics of an air-cooled steam condenser
incorporating a hybrid dry/wet dephlegmator, Stellenbosch Stellenbosch
University, 2008.
[20] L.J. Yang, X.Z. Du, Y.P. Yang, Space characteristics of the thermal performance
for air-cooled condensers at ambient winds, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 54 (2011)
3109–3119.
[21] Ansys Inc., Fluent User’s Guide, (2015).