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Performance of an air-cooled steam condenser for a waste-to-energy plant

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DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2010.11.021

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 Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 1908–1913

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Performance of an air-cooled steam condenser for a waste-to-energy

plant over its whole operating range
M. Pieve ⇑, G. Salvadori
Dipartimento di Energetica ‘‘Lorenzo Poggi’’, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work the behaviour of an air-cooled steam condenser (ACSC), installed in a waste-to-energy heat
Received 9 February 2010 recovery plant, has been analysed under various environmental conditions. The analysis has been carried
Received in revised form 7 October 2010 out by using a mathematical model developed by the authors. For an ACSC, the bottom heat sink is rep-
Accepted 14 November 2010
resented by the environmental air, hence the fluctuations of the environmental air temperature undoubt-
Available online 6 January 2011
edly affect the performance of the device. Because of the constancy of the temperature on the condensing
steam side, the mathematical model is based on the direct application of LMTD (log-mean temperature
Keywords:
difference) method. It provides the relation between the air temperature and the volumetric air flow rate,
ACSC
Waste-to-energy
and the main cycle operating parameters. An analysis of the on-site electrical demand has been also per-
Steam condenser formed, which shows that a net benefit is achievable by increasing the air-cooled steam condenser units
LMTD from six to eight.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, air-cooled steam condensers (ACSCs) are widely
used in many technological applications. In particular, they can
be frequently found in refrigerating systems, especially with
chillers [1–3].
The ACSCs are also used in the sector of power generation, as
they represent one of the best substitutes for the water-cooled
steam condensers where the latter cannot be adopted due to the
scarcity of water supply or to an excessively high environmental
impact, which would result in a overheating of the water tables
used as heat sinks [4,5].
Forced ACSCs, which are used in air-cooled power plants, usu-
ally consist of an array of fan units whose function is to condense
steam in a closed steam cycle. Axial flow fans located above or be-
low a finned tube heat exchanger bundle (if induced or forced draft
fans are used) force a stream of ambient cooling air through the
system. As a result, heat from the condensing steam is rejected
to the environment via the finned tubes. Owing to the dynamic
interaction between the steam turbine and the ACSC, a change in
the heat rejection rate of the ACSC will directly influence the out-
put of the steam turbine. Therefore, it is essential to understand
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: m.pieve@ing.unipi.it (M. Pieve).
and predict the factors and the mechanisms that can reduce the
heat rejection rate of an ACSC.
The main environmental parameters affecting the heat rejection
rate of the ACSC are the air temperature, the wind speed and the
wind direction. The effect of the wind speed and direction on the
efficiency of mechanically driven cooling devices, has been pointed
out by means of wind tunnel simulation [6]. The results show that
the negative influence is affecting not only the cooling devices, but
also the surrounding plant structures, like gas turbines which can
suck hot exhaust air and their efficiency dramatically decreases.
In fact, due to the requirements of technological process of a power
plant, the ACSC platform is usually located behind the steam tur-
bine room.
An experimental study on a scale model of a forced draft air-
cooled heat exchanger has been developed [7]. Significant changes
in cooling air flow rate by varying the height of the heat exchanger
platform have been observed by the authors, since the heat ex-
changer was exposed to airstreams with variable intensity and
direction.
In this study a mathematical model is developed for predicting
the influence of the environmental air temperature fluctuations on
the performance of an ACSC. For this purpose, a basic cooling unit
is considered, where the fundamental element is a finned tube
bank cooled with forced air. The model is then applied to a specific
case, that is an ACSC located in Pisa, Italy, installed in a waste-to-
energy heat recovery plant, which works based on a conventional
Rankine steam cycle.

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2010.11.021
 M. Pieve, G. Salvadori / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 1908–1913 1909

Nomenclature

A heat transfer surface area, m2 T temperature, K

Aeff effective surface area, m2 tf fin thickness, m
Af finned surface area, m2 U global heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K
Ap primary heat transfer surface area, m2 Xl longitudinal pitch, m
Cp specific heat, J/kg K Xt transversal pitch, m
D tube outer diameter, m W electrical consumption, W
De equivalent diameter, m C mass flux at minimum flow area, kg/m2 s
Df fin diameter, m g0 extended surface effectiveness, dimensionless
G mass flow rate, kg/s gf fin effectiveness, dimensionless
h convective heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K l dynamic viscosity, Pa s
i specific enthalpy, J/kg q density, kg/m3
k thermal conductivity, W/mK / coefficient defined in Eq. (11), m
K1 coefficient defined in Eq. (19), W/K
L1 tube length, m Subscripts
LMTD log-mean temperature difference, K ar air
m coefficient defined in Eq. (10), m1 b bulk conditions
nt effective number of tubes per row, dimensionless ext external side
Nu Nusselt number, dimensionless f fin
pf fin pitch, m in inlet conditions
Pr Prandtl number, dimensionless int internal side
Q thermal power, W m average conditions
Re Reynolds number, dimensionless out outlet conditions
Smint minimum cross-sectional area, m2 w water
t tube thickness, m wall tube wall conditions

2. Calculation of the heat transfer coefficients where Twall is the temperature of the tube at the fin root and Tb the
mean bulk air temperature.
The analysis of the performance of the ACSC cooling unit starts The mean convective coefficient may be expressed in non-
with the determination of heat transfer features. In this regard, a dimensional form as a mean Nusselt number, defined as
tube bank staggered arrangement is considered,1 whose geometri- Nu ¼ hDe =k; ð4Þ
cal main parameters are shown in Fig. 1.
A cross-flow heat exchanger is to be addressed, in which a tube where De indicates the equivalent diameter and k the thermal con-
and fin bundle containing condensing steam inside is cooled by ductivity of the air, as a function of the Reynolds and Prandtl num-
forced air. Firstly, when dealing with a finned surface, the extended bers. For individually finned tubes in staggered tube bank, Nusselt
surface efficiency g0 has to be addressed. It can be calculated by the number is defined as [8]
following expression:  0:2  
pf  t f pf  t f 0:11
Af Nu ¼ 0:134  Re0:681  Prð1=3Þ  ; ð5Þ
g0 ¼ 1  ð1  gf Þ; ð1Þ 0:5ðDf  DÞ tf
A
with Re defined as
where A indicates the sum of the primary surface Ap and the finned
surface Af, and gf is the fin efficiency, that is the ratio of the actual CD
Re ¼ ; ð6Þ
heat transfer rate and the maximum achievable with a ‘‘perfect l
fin’’ having the same geometrical and operating conditions as the
actual fin and infinite thermal conductivity of the fin material.2 In
other terms, g0 allows for a reduction of the effective surface area, Xt t
such that in some industries the effective area Aeff is used instead
of the extended surface efficiency, being defined as D Df
Aeff ¼ g0  A; ð2Þ Xl

so that tf
pf
Q ¼ hAeff  ðT wall  T b Þ; ð3Þ

L1

1
The in-line tube arrangement can be treated in a similar way, as a conceptual
scheme. What is different are the correlations between Nusselt number and the
geometrical features. Moreover, from a thermal point of view, air-cooler tube banks
are more effective in a staggered arrangement, that is why the choice of dealing with
it in the followings. Air Flow
2
Thus, the fin efficiency accounts for the effect of the temperature gradient along
the fin. Fig. 1. Layout arrangement of a typical air-cooled tube bundle.
1910 M. Pieve, G. Salvadori / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 1908–1913

C is defined as the inter-tube mass flux at minimum flow area, where DTa and DTb are temperature differences between two fluids
whose evaluation is done by considering the geometrical features at each end of a counter flow or parallel flow. If one of the fluids is a
of the tube bundle. If two-phase fluid, as in this case, its temperature is virtually constant.
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi If the mass flow rates and the inlet conditions of the fluids are
Xl 2X t known, then the heat removal rate and the air outlet temperature
> 0:5 1 þ ; ð7Þ
D D can be determined. Three equations are available:

then the minimum cross-sectional area will lie in a plane transverse 1. the enthalpy rate balance between the two fluids, neglecting
to the flow direction and will given by [9] the losses to the surroundings:
" #
tf cp;ar  Gar  ðT out;ar  T in;ar Þ ¼ Gw  ðiin;w  iout;w Þ; ð15Þ
Smin t ¼ X t  D  ðDf  DÞ  L1  nt ; ð8Þ
pf with cp,ar evaluated at a suited mean temperature iteratively
(since Tout,ar is unknown a priori)
where nt is the effective number of tubes per row, which accounts 2. the enthalpy rate balance of the heat exchanger itself, Eq. (13);
for the free-flow spaces between tubes and between the outermost 3. the equation linking the global thermal power to enthalpy
tubes and the walls placed around the tube bundle. Generally, it is change of one of the fluids, for instance the condensing steam:
equal to the number of tubes per row, if half a pitch is considered to
be at both the bundle borders, otherwise it is to be determined by Q ¼ Gw  ðiin;w  iout;w Þ: ð16Þ
considering the particular case.
To calculate the extended surface efficiency, the fin efficiency If the second equation is modified by substituting in it the
needs to be determined. Although theoretical expressions for the expression of Q of the third equation and making explicit the LMTD
fin efficiency of circular fins in terms of Bessel functions do exist, expression with the inclusion of Tout,ar arising from the first equa-
nevertheless they are difficult to use for hand calculations. The cor- tion, after some rearrangements the expression of Q as well as of
responding relationship for plane parallel sided fins on a flat sur- Tout,ar are obtained as
face is modified to make it applicable to annular fins whereby: h   i
UA
C p;ar Gar ðT w  T in;ar Þ  exp C p;ar Gar
1
tan hðmuÞ Q¼   ; ð17Þ
gf ¼ ; ð9Þ
exp C p;ar UA
mu Gar

with
and
 1=2 h   i
2h
m¼ ; ð10Þ ðT w  T in;ar Þ  exp C p;arUA
1
kf t f  
Gar
T out;ar ¼ T in;ar þ : ð18Þ
UA
exp C p;ar Gar
and
 exp½0:065mðDf Dþtf Þ1:3863 The maximum quantity of condensable steam mass flow rate Gw
Df
u ¼ 0:5½Df  D þ tf   : ð11Þ is easily achievable from Eq. (16), once Q is known.
D
Note that the explicit expressions of Q and Tout,ar are obtained in
For 0.5 6 gf 6 1 and Df/D 6 8, the predictions are within 1% of the hypothesis of constant water temperature, i.e. without subco-
the analytical values [9]. oling the condensate. If the subcooling would also be considered,
Assuming that: the expression of Gw(Tin,ar) should be managed by a numerical
method.
– the heat transfer surface area is uniformly distributed along the If a fixed air-cooler apparatus is considered, with a fixed ideal
heat exchanger; thermodynamic reference cycle, some quantities can be identified
– the heat transfer coefficients are constant in the heat in Eq. (17) and Eq. (18) which are directly affected by Tin,ar. Keeping
exchanger; in mind the previous prerequisites, the latter can be chosen as the
– the conductive thermal resistance and the fouling resistance are only independent variable. In particular:
negligible;
– A is a constant, since the air-cooler is geometrically defined;
then the global heat transfer coefficient U can be determined, with – Tw is a constant, since the reference cycle is prefixed, Gw being
reference to the external surface, as changeable according to the heat removal capability;
– Cp,ar is weakly affected by Tin,ar, that is to say its variability is less
1
U ext ¼ 1 Aext
ð12Þ than 0.2% over the usual operating range of environmental tem-
þ ðhAÞ
ðg0 hÞext int perature, 0–40 °C;
– in an air-cooled condenser, U is generally weakly affected by
Tin,ar, since, in Eq. (12) the heat transfer coefficient on the con-
3. Thermodynamic model for the performance assessment
densing steam side (hint) is usually equal to some thousands
W/m2 K, and the thermo-physical properties of air which influ-
The heat transfer rate Q can be determined by the overall rate
ence the heat transfer coefficient on the air side undergo small
equation
modifications over the previously defined range of operating
Q ¼ U  A  LMTD: ð13Þ temperature;
– even if the volumetric flow rate is fixed, Gar is dependent from
Here U is the global heat transfer coefficient, A is the heat trans- Tin,ar, because the density of air varies with its temperature. This
fer surface area and LMTD is the log-mean temperature difference, dependence, however, is affected by the pressure drop-mass
which is defined as flow rate curve of the considered loop. In other words, when
the air temperature decreases, a greater density would mean
LMTD ¼ ðDT a  DT b Þ= ln½ðDT a =DT b Þ; ð14Þ a greater mass flow rate. Effectively, such increase is limited
 M. Pieve, G. Salvadori / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 1908–1913 1911

by the increased pressure drop, so that the final value of the – Cp,ar can be assumed constant, as said before, and equal to
mass flow rate is lower than expected. 1006.8 J/kg K
– Tw is given, equal to 54 °C;
Q(Tin,ar) can be written as – Aext is given, equal to 22,147 m2;
– Gar depends on Tm,ar, so it depends on Tin,ar and Tout,ar;
Q ¼ K 1 ðT in;ar  T w Þ; ð19Þ
– U depends on hint, which is assumed to be constant and equal to
so that the variability of K1 over the entire range of operating Ti- 2500 W/m2 K, and on hext, which in turns depends on Tm,ar, since
it contains some air thermo-physical quantities that are affected
n,ar can be evaluated as
by the temperature.
maxðK 1 ðT in;ar ÞÞ  minðK 1 ðT in;ar ÞÞ
DK 1 ¼ 1 : ð20Þ
K Gar is determined by the use of the characteristic curve of the
fans, which allows to identify from the technical specifications of
If DK1 is less than a few percent, then the K1 value can be replaced the fan manufacturer [10] a nominal volumetric air flow rate equal
by the mean value K  1 in the Eq. (19) obtaining a quasi-linear form.
to 91.93 m3/h at an inlet temperature of 20 °C. When Tin,ar changes
a different curve represents the equivalent circuit, and the operat-
4. Application of the model to the waste-to-energy plant ing point has to slide along the fan characteristic curve. With refer-
ence to Fig. 2, when a density rise occurs, for example, the
The model above described can be used for the analysis of the operating point A goes to B, where the intersection between the
behaviour of an air-cooled steam condenser under various environ- new curve of the equivalent circuit (which is changed as an effect
mental conditions. The condenser is installed in a waste-to-energy of changed fluid properties) and the fan characteristic curve. Point
heat recovery plant which works based on a conventional Rankine C would represent an ideal condition in which the volumetric flow
steam cycle. rate is chocked from other factors, for example a different fan.
Because the bottom heat sink level is fixed by the environmen- When the mass flow rate is considered, a different trend can be
tal air temperature, its seasonal fluctuations undoubtedly affect observed, due to the increase of the air density. In the examined
the performance of the entire cooling system. This could also result case, a good linear approximation (below 0.2%) is used for the var-
in a reduction of the overall plant power output, due to a lower iation of Gar as a function of
steam flow rate production or to a higher temperature in the
condenser. T m;ar : Gar ¼ 112:88  0:2349  T m;ar ð21Þ
Table 1 shows the nominal operating parameters of the thermo-
dynamic reference cycle of the plant, while Table 2 shows the geo- with Tm,ar expressed in °C and Gar in kg/s. Eq. (21) refers to a single
metrical characteristics of the condenser itself. fan unit.
It is made of six parallel units which are constituted of 128 For the calculation of hext, the main thermo-physical properties
finned tubes each, arranged in 4 rows  32 tubes (see Fig. 1). They to be considered as variable are the density, the thermal conductiv-
are crossed by the ambient air induced by six drafts in a cross-flow ity and the viscosity. The density can be thought to satisfy the ideal
arrangement. gas behaviour over the entire operating range of air temperature.
In order to perform the analysis of the performance of the plant, For the thermal conductivity and the viscosity, two polynomial
the various terms of Eqs. (17) and (18) are to be determined. In laws can be used as interpolation of experimental data [11].
detail: The calculation of U is made by iterating over the air tempera-
ture, starting with Tin,ar as first estimate and correcting with the
Table 1 resulting Tm,ar for the subsequent steps. The same iterative proce-
Nominal features of the thermodynamic cycle. dure is adopted for Gar in Eq. (17) and in Eq. (18). Figs. 3 and 4 show
the final results. The heat removal rate and the parameters Tout,ar
Steam mass flow rate 5.3 kg/s
Temperature at turbine inlet 388 °C and DTar are plotted as a function of the inlet air temperature, in
Pressure at turbine inlet 37 bar Figs. 3 and 4 respectively.
Turbine gross mechanical power 4.23 MW
Condenser heat removal rate 11.49 MW
Condensing pressure 0.15 bar
Condensing temperature 54 °C
Surface area of condenser 22,147 m2
Turbine isentropic efficiency 0.8
Environmental air temperature range 0–40 °C

C
B
A
Static head

Table 2
Geometrical parameters of the condenser tube bank.

Transversal pitch, Xt 76.2 mm

Longitudinal pitch, Xl 65.8 mm
Tube length, L1 12.8 m
Number of parallel bundles 6
Number of tubes for each bundle 128
Increasing density
Number of rows in a bundle 4
Number of tubes per row 32
Tube outer diameter, D 38.1 mm
Tube thickness, t 2.11 mm
Fin diameter, Df 69.85 mm
Fin thickness, tf 0.375 mm Volum. flow rate
Fin pitch, pf 2.57 mm
Fig. 2. Variation of the operating point of fan when the density of air changes.
1912 M. Pieve, G. Salvadori / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 1908–1913

4.5E+06 with eight or ten cooling units is analyzed as for its cooling
performance.
4.0E+06
Fig. 5 shows the relation between the condenser cooling capa-
3.5E+06 bility and the mass flow rate variation for different environmental
Heat Removal Rate (W)

temperatures. As it is obvious, for a fixed mass flow rate, the heat

3.0E+06 removal rate decreases when the air temperature increases. The
line of maximum heat removable is also shown. Its slope is deter-
2.5E+06
mined by the fixed electric power supply to each fan, which is
2.0E+06 strictly dependent on the volumetric flow rate. The colder is the
air mass entering the fan, the higher is the mass flow rate that
1.5E+06 can be obtained.
In this plot a reference line can be introduced which corre-
1.0E+06
sponds to the nominal heat removal duty of the plant. In this
5.0E+05 way, the capability of the air-cooler system is measurable in con-
nection with the environmental air temperature and its limit
0.0E+00 working conditions are directly readable.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
If the number of cooling units is increased to eight or ten, then
T in,ar (°C)
two further reference lines can be introduced which refer to the
Fig. 3. Heat removal capacity of a single cooling unit as a function of Tin,ar. nominal heat removal rate of a single unit. In particular, this would
decrease from 1914.2 kW with six units, to 1435.6 with eight units
and 1148.5 kW with ten units. This would mean that the capability
of removal rate can be guaranteed at the nominal levels up to
50 33.2 °C with eight cooling units and 37.3 °C with ten cooling units.
45 The electrical consumption of the fans can be related to their
Tout,ar heat removal rate capacity. In particular, a curve of electrical power
40 consumption versus volumetric flow rate can be built by consider-
ing the technical specifications of the fan manufacturer [10]. In the
35
operating range, it can be reasonably interpolated (error below 5%)
(°C)

30 by the following expression:

25
W ¼ 600  expð0:036  G=qÞ; ð22Þ
Δ Tar
20
where W indicates the electrical consumption of one fan expressed
15
in W.
10 The relationship Q(W) is obtained by substituting G(W), inverse
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 of Eq. (22), in Eq. (17). It is plotted in Fig. 6, for different air temper-
T in,ar (°C) atures. Again, the nominal heat removal rates are also drawn for
six, eight and ten cooling units, respectively.
Fig. 4. Behaviour of Tout,ar and DTar as functions of Tin,ar for the air-cooled It can be noted that the increase of the number of cooling units
condenser.
makes the electric power consumption of a single fan to decrease
faster than linearly, so that the global power consumption effec-
tively decreases. For example, for a temperature of 26.4 °C, i.e.
5. Analysis of the ACSC performance
the maximum allowable with the present configuration, Table 3
clearly shows that the electric power consumption is reduced by
Once the behaviour of the cooling system has been identified as
a factor greater than 2 with eight cooling units and greater than
a function of the main parameters, many different analysis can be
3 with ten cooling units.
performed on the system itself, depending on the relevant quanti-
ties that are to be investigated. One of the most important is the
evaluation of the limit working conditions of the system, i.e. max- 4.0E+06 0 °C
imum allowable air temperature for a prefixed power production 5 °C
of the cycle, or maximum power producible as a function of the 3.5E+06 10 °C
15 °C
air temperature.
Heat Removal Rate (W)

3.0E+06 20 °C
Looking at Fig. 3, it can be noted that the power plant can oper- 25 °C
ate under the specified nominal features (condenser heat removal 2.5E+06 30 °C
35 °C
rate = 6  1.914 MW) with a maximum environmental air temper-
40 °C
ature of 26.4 °C. When the air temperature is higher than such va- 2.0E+06
6 cooling units
lue, a penalization in terms of power generation occurs. Depending
1.5E+06
on the geographical location of the plant, the plant energy produc- 8 cooling units

tion can be strongly affected. 1.0E+06 10 cooling units

A parametric study can be done about the cooling capability of Line of maximum heat removable
the equipment when the air mass flow rate is considered as an 5.0E+05
independent input. In this way a relationship between the heat re-
0.0E+00
moval rate and the electric power consumption can be determined. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
In this connection, a re-powering study can be done, consider-
Mass Flow Rate (kg/s)
ing the possibility of increasing the cooling capacity of the con-
denser equipment. In this system, there are six units, so a system Fig. 5. Heat removal rate of a single cooling unit as a function.
 M. Pieve, G. Salvadori / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 1908–1913 1913

4.5E+06 mental air temperature fixes the bottom heat sink level, so that
0 °C
5 °C the performance of the cooling system are influenced by the sea-
4.0E+06
10 °C sonal fluctuations of this parameter. At worst, a reduction of the
15 °C
Heat removal rate (W)

3.5E+06 overall plant power output could occur, whether due to a lower
20 °C
3.0E+06 25 °C steam flow rate or to a higher temperature at the condenser.
30 °C
35 °C An operating data collection was performed and the steam cycle
2.5E+06 40 °C was modelled in order to highlight the most critical operating con-
2.0E+06 6 cooling units ditions, which logically occurred during summertime. The steam
condenser is composed of six air-cooled units, with 128 finned
1.5E+06 8 cooling units
10 cooling units tubes each, cooled through the air driven by the induced draft fans.
1.0E+06 An energy balance can be set out on each unit by considering a
5.0E+05 cross-flow heat transfer model in which the environmental tem-
perature is a variable. The constancy of the temperature on the
0.0E+00
condensing steam side allows the direct application of the LMTD
0.0E+00 5.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.5E+04 2.0E+04 2.5E+04
method to get the connection between the environmental temper-
Electric Power (W) ature and the main cycle operating parameters. This way, for each
Fig. 6. Heat removal rate of a single cooling unit as a function of the electrical
steam condenser unit an equation is determined which relates its
consumption of the fan. thermal power removal capability to variable external conditions,
namely the air temperature and the volumetric air flow rate. The
performance of the currently existing plant cooling equipment is
Table 3 assessed in terms of maximum allowable environmental tempera-
Electric consumption of the cooling system for many configurations at Tin,ar = 26.4 °C. ture at full load operation (26.4 °C) and heat removal rate as a func-
No. of cooling Electric consumption of a single Global electric tion of the environmental air conditions. As a consequence, two
units cooling unit (kW) consumption (kW) possible scenarios are identified and proposed, increasing the
6 16.1 96.6 number of cooling units to eight and ten, respectively. By analysing
8 5.49 43.9 the performance plots, it can be noted that with eight cooling units
10 3.17 31.7 the full load operation is made virtually possible even in the worst
environmental conditions.
Finally, a brief analysis of the on-site electrical demand is per-
If the relative power is considered, as percentage of the turbine formed, in order to show that a net benefit is achievable by increas-
gross mechanical power, a reduction is also observed when the ing the number of cooling units. In fact, when changing form six to
number of cooling units is increased for a combination of two ef- ten cooling units, the relative importance of this auxiliary load
fects, that is the reduction of the global electric consumption (as would reduce as an effect of a reduced air flow rate required for
shown above) and the possibility of producing at the nominal level each single air fan.
for every practical environmental conditions.
A decision about the optimum number of air-coolers can be
made depending on the specific case. Primarily, the climatic condi- References
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