Desirable effects of cutting grooves on inner side of small cooling tower on reduction in ground level pollutant concentration

Abstract

The pollutant dispersion from a small cooling tower is numerically investigated in the current study. The behavior of exhaust plume from a grooved cooling tower is studied to control the dispersion of pollutant by swirling the plume. The pollutant concentration, i.e., mass of pollutant per unit mass of the mixture, and the plume rise, i.e., the geometric loci of the highest pollutant concentration points at each flow cross sections downstream of cooling tower, are investigated as significant parameters in the problem of pollutant dispersion from sources of air pollution. The various ways by which the counterrotating vortex pair as well as swirling plume affect the behavior of outflow from source of air pollution are investigated. An innovative structure for inner side of cooling tower by cutting the angular grooves is proposed in this article for reduction in pollutant concentration on the ground level and moving the plume rise to the higher altitude. The results indicate that the minimum value of pollutant concentration on the ground level is obtained by applying parallel grooves with respect to the axis of the cooling tower and the plume rise occurs in a higher altitude by increasing in the angle of the grooves. The physics of the outflow from the tower is investigated to examine the effects of the grooves angle on the path of plume and dispersion of pollutant.