Influence of temperature inversions on wet-cooling tower performance

Nocturnal temperature inversions have a detrimental effect on the performance of natural draft wet-cooling towers. The effects of the temperature inversion profile, the height of the inversion and the height from which air is drawn into the cooling tower, on the performance of cooling towers are investigated. Relatively simple and accurate equations are employed in the analysis to determine the temperature inversion profiles and inversion heights, which only have ground based measurements as input. The detrimental effect in tower performance, during nocturnal temperature inversions, is due to the reduced potential in draft and the increase of the effective air inlet temperature.