Design and optimization of cooling towers

冷却塔广泛用于热电厂、化学和石油化工过程工业以及制冷和空调厂的低品位热量的消散。在美国，湿式冷却塔的需求量大约是所有家庭用水量的3倍。在寒冷的冬季，湿式冷却塔还会在塔上方产生可见的冷凝蒸汽羽流，由于能见度降低，甚至在邻近道路上结冰，这可能对农业和运输行业（空中和地面）构成威胁。对水消耗和烟羽可见度的规定越来越多，再加上要求在更干旱的条件下开发发电厂，在这种条件下，无法获得可靠的补充水源，这通常是太阳能和地热能应用的情况，这要求工程师开发工具来设计改进的冷却塔技术。

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.