An experimental investigation of the drift ratio and its influencing factors in mechanical draft wet cooling towers

Description

Linxiu Qu and Lujun Li measured how cooling towers lose water as wind-blown mist, in this 2025 study. In mechanical draft wet towers, fans pull air through falling water to cool it, and some droplets escape with the exhaust. That escaped fraction, the drift ratio, decides how much water a plant wastes and how far chemical mist spreads.

Using a model tower and absorbent filter paper to catch the escapees, they ran ninety-six experiments varying the hardware and the flow. Drift rose in a curved, non-linear way with air speed, and nozzle size mattered most of all: small nozzles behaved differently from large ones as wind increased. Water density and air speed also regulated each other's effects. The authors fitted a three-variable prediction model. Tower operators can use it to pick settings and nozzles that keep the water, and the cooling, in balance.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12738747