96-08: Oriented Spray-Assisted Cooling Tower

Although the thermal performances of natural draft cooling towers occasionally fail to meet expectations, the options available to the designer to improve the performance of these cooling towers are limited. This paper presents the technical basis for a new Oriented Spray-assisted Cooling Tower design developed by the authors while employed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This design which may be back-fitted to existing natural draft cooling towers reduces the water loading and increases the air flow, resulting in a significant improvement in overall thermal performance. The paper will present the results of case studies conducted for existing TVA natural draft cooling towers and will show how the improvement in performance is achieved.