A Numerical Investigation of the Influence of Wind on Multiple Short Natural Draft Dry Cooling Towers

The deployment of concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) plants in arid areas necessitatesthe use of dry cooling systems to reject heat from the condenser. As modular CSP plants are expanded, likewise there is a need to add additional cooling capacity, usuallyby the addition of more cooling towers. One of the challenges in adding additional cooling towers though is how to site these with respect to the original cooling tower.Previous research has shown that the capacity of short natural draft dry cooling towers (NDDCTs), as a condenser for CSP plants, can be significantly influenced by the wind. In this respect, the aim of this study was to computationally investigate the interaction between multiple NDDCTs. The results show that placement of NDDCTs can lead to significant variations in the cooling capacity under varying wind speeds. Furthermore, this workdeliversa generalised relationship describing the effect of wind flow on multiple cooling towers and exploreshow cooling tower layouts can be better configured for practical applications.