Design and optimization of cooling towers

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Cooling towers are widely used to dissipate the low-grade heat of thermo-electric power plants, chemical and petrochemical process industries, and refrigeration and air conditioning plants. Wet cooling tower requirements in the U.S. are about 3 times larger than all domestic water consumption. During cold winter months, wet cooling tower also produce visible plumes of condensed steam above the tower which can pose threats to agriculture and the transportation industries (air and ground) due to reduced visibility and even ice formation on neighbouring roads. Increased regulations on water consumption and plume visibility, combined with the requirement to develop power plants in more arid conditions where a dependable source of make-up water is unavailable, as it is typically the case for solar thermal and geothermal energy applications, requires engineers to develop tools to design improved cooling tower technologies.