Impact mechanism of the chip muffler layout patterns on the cooling performance of wet cooling towers

Abstract

The chip mufflers are widely installed around the natural draft wet cooling towers (NDWCTs) to lessen the noise, which significantly influence the tower inflow air field. To study the impact and mechanism of the chip muffler on the tower performance, a three dimensional numerical model for a wet cooling tower with different layouts of chip muffler is established. The ventilation rate G and the average exit water temperature ta2 of tower are computed to analyze the tower performance. Results indicate that the chip muffler around half the tower weakens the tower cooling efficiency. The specific effect of the chip muffler on the performance is as follows. With the increase of the distance between the chip muffler units B and the distance between the chip muffler and cooling tower L, the G increases while the ta2 decreases. On the contrary, with the increase of the installation angle of the chip muffler θ, the G decreases while the ta2 increases. Thus, the chip muffler with a θ of 0°, a B of 150 mm, and a L of 5 m can lead to a optimum tower performance. This paper can lay the foundation for the optimization of the chip muffler research.