CFD study on the effects of boundary conditions on air flow through an air-cooled condenser

• Main Authors: Sumara Zdeněk, Šochman Michal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2018-01-01
• Series: EPJ Web of Conferences
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201817002103

This study focuses on the effects of boundary conditions on effectiveness of an air-cooled condenser (ACC). Heat duty of ACC is very often calculated for ideal uniform velocity field which does not correspond to reality. Therefore, this study studies the effect of wind and different landscapes on air flow through ACC. For this study software OpenFOAM was used and the flow was simulated with the use of RANS equations. For verification of numerical setup a model of one ACC cell with dimensions of platform 1.5×1.5 [m] was used. In this experiment static pressures behind fan and air flows through a model of surface of condenser for different rpm of fan were measured. In OpenFOAM software a virtual clone of this experiment was built and different meshes, turbulent models and numerical schemes were tested. After tuning up numerical setup virtual model of real ACC system was built. Influence of wind, landscape and height of ACC on air flow through ACC has been investigated.