Development of performance-improving structures for power station cooling towers

Funding: 2000: $42,160
2001: $42,160
2002: $42,160

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC SPIRT (Strategic Partnerships with Industry Re)
Delta Electricity (Delta Electricity Partner Funds)

Start year: 2000

Summary: Delta Electricity experiences severe wind-induced cooling tower performance losses. Research to alleviate the wind losses has been inconclusive due to both complexity of the problem and "commercial confidentiality". Delta wishes to initiate a combined wind tunnel, CFD and field study, jointly with UNSW and UTS, to develop design tools for performance-improving structures. It is expected that application of such structures in NSW cooling towers will reduce both operating costs by one million dollars and emission of tradeable greenhouse gases by over ten thousand tonnes annually, for every one degree reduction in the cooling water temperature.

Keywords: Cooling tower; Performance-improving structures; Clean and efficient energy; Wind-induced losses; Wind tunnel modelling; Wind effects

FOR Codes: Energy distribution not elsewhere classified, Wind, Industry, Mechanical Engineering, Aerodynamics, Industrial Energy Conservation and Efficiency, Wind Energy, Industrial energy efficiency

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.