Thermo-flow performances of air-cooled condenser cell with oblique finned tube bundles

The A-frame configuration of finned tube bundles and complex aerodynamics of axial flow fan result in the increased pressure loss of cooling air and unfavorable thermo-flow performances of air-cooled condenser cell. In this work, an air-cooled condenser cell with oblique finned tube bundles is proposed to weaken the adverse effects due to the geometric flaws of conventional condenser cell. By means of CFD simulation and experimental validation, the pressure drop and heat transfer for the oblique finned tube bundles with the inclined angles of 0°, 15°, 30°, 45° and 60° are obtained. Using a lumped parameter radiator approach, the air-cooled condenser cell model is developed, by which the velocity and temperature fields as well as the total mass flow rate and heat transfer rate are computed and compared. The results show that the thermo-flow performances of the proposed condenser cell are greatly improved at the lower regions, especially for the inclined angle of 45° with the mass flow and heat transfer growth rates reaching up to 12.81% and 8.96% respectively, so the angle of 45° is preferred in the practical application of oblique finned tube bundles to air-cooled condenser.