Effect of Wind on Air-Cooled Condenser Performance

Abstract

This paper documents the results of a field tests to determine the effect of wind on the performance of air-cooled condensers (ACCs) at power plants. Continuous measurements of wind speed, wind direction, cell inlet temperature and air flow and plant operating variables were made for several days at the El Dorado Energy Center. ACC performance was shown to be affected both by hot air recirculation and by fan performance degradation. Average recirculation, defined as the difference between the average cell inlet temperature and the far-field inlet temperature, was usually less than 3 °F. Occasional excursions to 4 to 10 °F were noted. Fan performance degradation is more difficult to quantify or generalize. Under low wind conditions this was typically close to the design value. The reduction in air flow, estimated from inlet velocity measurements would sometimes exceed 60 to 70% of the average flow in cells near the edge of the ACC during high wind conditions. Fan performance degradation appears to be the more important mechanism. Comparisons with flow modeling results support design recommendations for suppressing unfavorable flow patterns under the ACC.

Novel health monitoring technology for in‐service diagnostics of intake separation in aircraft engines

“…These structural effects are also valid for a smaller scale objects, such as industrial fans. It is confirmed experimentally 19,20 that flow distortions due to crosswinds lead to increase in levels of structural vibrations of fan blades. It was found, in particular, that both acoustic and vibration structural responses of blades due to crosswind are similar and contain multiple superharmonics of the rotation frequency as well as first eigenfrequency of the blade.…”

“…11 Instruments for measurement of the local flow velocities, such as hot wires, hot films, and laser Doppler anemometers, are also widely used. 11,12,[19][20][21][22][25][26][27][28] In contrast to the computationally complex methods of the CFD involved into numerical studies of the flow separation, experimental detection and diagnostics of the flow separation are predominantly based on simple signal processing techniques.…”

“…For example, work 25 used an autospectrum of wall pressure values for analysis of flow separation effects; study 26 implemented power spectrum and coherence of pressure measurements for analysis of a separated flow; research 27 use power spectra of hot film signals to show the difference between them before and after flow separation. Other authors 19,20 applied spectral analysis to blade vibration signals from laser scanning vibrometer to investigate effects of local flow instabilities due to crosswind on the structural vibration of an axial fan blade. Some studies implement more complex and sensitive techniques: Γ functions with entity connection graphs applied to velocity and pressure measurements 22 and autocorrelation based on the continuous wavelet, transform of pressure measurements 25 for flow separation detection, diagnostics, and analysis.…”

Effect of Environmental Wind on Performance of a 600MW Direct Air-cooled Unit Based on FLUENT

“…Duan Huishen et al [4][5] and Owen et al [6] studied the formation mechanism of hot air reflow and found through numerical simulation that the higher the wind speed, the more severe the hot air reflow. However, Maulbetsch and DiFilippo [7] found through field tests that at moderate wind speeds (3m/s to 7m/s), hot air reflow was the most serious, and wind inlet air temperature rises most. At higher wind speeds, There is a tendency for the hot air reflow to slow down and slow down.…”

Axial Fan Performance under the Influence of a Uniform Ambient Flow Field

“…It has been shown that flow detachment at the periphery of the ACC banks is caused by cross-flow under the platform, which is induced by the center fans' intake and natural ambient winds [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. This reduces volumetric effectiveness of the cooling fans of down to 70% at the ACC perimeter [6,15,[17][18][19][20][21][22].…”