Plumes from one and two cooling towers

Use of mechanical- and natural-draft cooling towers is expanding in the United States in response to pressures for better resource allocation and preservation. Specifically, increasing public and regulatory concern over the effects of the intake and discharge of large volumes of cooling water has encouraged electric utilities to accept cooling towers as the primary method of removing condenser waste heat even though once-through cooling is considerably less expensive. Other factors encouraging the use of cooling towers include small water supply and consumption rates, reduction in land requirements (compared to cooling ponds or lakes), and operational flexibility. The growing demand for electric energy should also add to the increase of cooling tower use. The experimental program and its comparison to model prediction suggest that optimal siting of cooling towers, particularly multiple towers, is a task requiring knowledge of ambient wind history, plume dynamics, and tower operating conditions. Based on the tower wake effects and on the results for interaction of plumes from two cooling towers, site terrain may be a very significant factor in plume dynamics and interaction