The Effect of Wind on the Performance of Multiple Short Natural Draft Dry Cooling Towers

The layout of multiple natural draft dry cooling towers can have an influence on the performance of the cooling system in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of wind on the performance of multiple natural draft dry cooling towers (NDDCTs). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling was carried out to numerically analyse the performance of two short NDDCTs at different tower spacings, crosswind velocities and wind attack angles (the direction of the wind relative to a line drawn between the centres of the two towers). The results show that the cooling performance of the towers is a strong function of tower spacing and their orientation with respect to the wind direction. The findings of this study are essential for the layout installation of multiple short NDDCTs with respect to the most frequent direction of the crosswind in a specific location.