Abstract
In air-cooled power units, an air-cooled condenser (ACC) is usually accompanied by mechanical draft wet-cooling towers (MCTs) so as to meet the severe cooling requirements of air-cooling auxiliary apparatuses, such as water ring vacuum pumps. When running, both the ACC and MCTs affected each other through their aerodynamic fields. To make the effect of MCTs on the cooling performance of the ACC more prominent, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model was established for one 2 × 660 MW air-cooling power plant, with full consideration the ACC, MCTs and adjacent main workshops, which was validated by design data and published test results. By numerical simulation, we obtained the effect of hot air recirculation (HAR) on the cooling performance of the ACC under different working conditions and the effect of MCTs on the cooling performance of the ACC. The results showed that as the ambient wind speed increases, the hot recirculation rate (HRR) of the ACC increased and changed significantly with the change of wind directions. An increase in ambient temperature can cause a significant rise in back pressure of the ACC. The exhaust of the MCTs partially entered the ACC under the influence of ambient wind, and the HRR in the affected cooling units was higher than that of the nearby unaffected cooling units. When the MCTs were turned off, the overall HRR of the ACC decreased. The presence of MCTs had a local influence on the cooling performance of only two cooling units, and then slightly impacted the overall cooling performance of the ACC, which provides a good insight into the arrangement optimization of the ACC and the MCTs.
Highlights
The air-cooled condenser (ACC) uses air as a cooling medium to exchange heat and has obvious water conservation benefits; in arid regions, the ACC has been widely used [1,2]
In air-cooled power units, the exhausted steam is cooled in the ACC, but the auxiliary critical apparatus, such as the water ring vacuum pump, oil cooler, etc., should be cooled by mechanical draft wet-cooling towers (MCTs) due to their severe cooling requirements, so MCTs are usually built nearby ACCs
The increase of ambient temperature led to the performance degradation of the ACC, and the increase of wind speed caused the same situation to occur, but the influence was less than the increase of ambient temperature and greater than the change of wind direction
Summary
The air-cooled condenser (ACC) uses air as a cooling medium to exchange heat and has obvious water conservation benefits; in arid regions, the ACC has been widely used [1,2]. Experimentally studied the influence of wind directions, wind speed and ACC platform height on the HAR of an air-cooling system. Taking a representative 2 × 600 MW power plant as an example, and taking into account factors such as boiler rooms, steam engine rooms and chimneys, the specific effects of MCTs on the cooling performance of the ACC were mainly studied, which fills in the blanks of this aspect. The final results showed that the presence of MCTs had a local influence on the cooling performance of only two cooling units, and slightly impacted the overall cooling performance of the ACC, which provides a good insight into the arrangement optimization of ACCs and MCTs. it is beneficial to the optimal design and operation of the ACC of the power plant
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