Theoretical assessment of evaporation rate of isolated water drop under the conditions of cooling tower of thermal power plant

Abstract

The purpose of the work is numerical modelling of heat and mass transfer at evaporation of water drops under the conditions which are typical for a modern chimney-type cooling tower of a thermal power plant. The dual task of heat and mass transfer with movable boundary at convective cooling and evaporation for a 'drop-humid air' system in a spherical coordinate system has been solved. It has been shown that there is a rapid decline of water evaporation rate at the initial stage of the process according to temperature decrease of its surface. It has been stated that the effect of evaporation rate decrease appears greatly in the area of small radiuses.