Wind tunnel experiment for predicting a visible plume region from a wet cooling tower

We developed a new method for a wind tunnel experiment to predict a visible plume region from a wet cooling tower. The diffusion of water vapor and heat emitted from a cooling tower in a wind tunnel is estimated using a tracer gas. The instantaneous concentration of the tracer gas is measured using high-response flame ionization detectors. A moist plume-induced fog is assumed to be generated whenever the instantaneous specific humidity predicted from the concentration of the tracer gas at measured points is larger than the inferred saturation specific humidity. To confirm the validity of the present method, the results in the wind tunnel experiments are roughly compared with the observations obtained at the mechanical-draft cooling tower of the Benning Road plant. The results show that the visible plume length and height are nearly in agreement with observations and the present method has the capability to predict the visible plume region from the cooling tower.