Design, construction and early testing of a 1-mw natural draft dry cooling tower

The QGECE has recently completed construction of a 1 MWt Natural Draft Dry Cooling Tower (NDDCT) Test Facility. The facility has been constructed with funding provided by the QLD State Govt. through the Hybrid Cooling Towers grant, and aims to test the viability of short NDDCTs in real-life environmental conditions. The tower is 20 m high overall, with a heat exchanger deck 12 m in diameter. The heat exchanger deck is located at a height of 5m, giving sufficient distance for spray cooling evaporation beneath the heat exchangers. The “shell” of the tower is a PVC membrane, supported by a lightweight steel truss structure that also bears the heat exchanger deck. The tower is fully instrumented for both the water- and air-flow paths; this will permit a unique perspective of the distribution factors such as temperature, humidity and flow within the tower in both calm and crosswind conditions, and at varying ambient temperatures.