A CFD Model for Heat and Mass Transfer Leading To Plume Formation within Wet Cooling Towers

The crucial role played by Wet Cooling Towers (WCT) in many electricity production plants (e.g. nuclear power plants)make them a key parameter in the industrial design of such facilities. Their impact over the cooling water consumption and surrounding atmosphere through the formation and dispersion of a humid air plume has pushed the need to obtain proper models and simulations in order to anticipate those effects. In this work, we tackle this issue through a dedicated modelling in the CFD solver code_saturne. Specific modeling includes heat and mass transfer (convection and evaporation) between the injected water and the air flow that are validated against experimental results obtained in a reduced scale WCT experimental loop. Satisfying agreement is obtained for several parameters such as air and water exit temperatures, evaporation mass flow rate and total exchanged thermal power. This constitutes an important first step for detailed CFD predictions of WCT water consumption and humid air plume atmospheric dispersion.