Abstract
A new visible plume model is developed to predict visible plume, temperature, moisture and droplet from a mechanical-draft cooling tower. The developed model is a normal Gaussian plume model for moisture and temperature, considering fan configuration, wet-dry combined cooling tower system, vertical atmospheric temperature and atmospheric stability. The accuracy of previous models (FOG, SACTI) and the developed model is investigated to compare the model results with observation conducted in Japan. The results show that the previous models can not accurately predict the visible plume length and height because they have mainly developed for a natural-drift cooling tower, which is different type from a mechanical-draft cooling tower. On the other hand, the visible plume length and height predicted by the developed model are in good agreement with the observation, and statistical data analysis also shows that the model provides better performance than the previous models. Furthermore, the model predicts not only the visible plume region but also temperature, moisture and droplet from the cooling tower.
