Wind Tunnel Experiment for Predicting a Visible Plume Region from a Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Tower

This paper introduces a wind tunnel experiment to study the effect of the cooling tower of a nuclear power plant on the flow and the characteristics of visible plume regions. The relevant characteristics of the flow field near the cooling tower, such as the plume rise and the visible plume region, are compared with the results of previous experimental data from Électricité de France (EDF) and the Briggs formulas. The results show that the wind tunnel experiment can simulate the top backflow of the cooling tower and the rear cavity regions among others. In the near-wake region, including the recirculation cavity, mean velocity decreases and turbulence intensity increases significantly. The maximum turbulence intensity observed is 0.5. In addition, the disturbed flow extent of the cooling tower top reaches 1.5 times the cooling tower height. Analysis of the visible plume region shows that the wind tunnel experiment can simulate the variation of a visible plume region. The results are consistent with the wind tunnel experiment of EDF. Moreover, the plume rise analysis shows that the wind tunnel experiment data are in agreement with the Briggs formulas for 50–200 m. As a whole, the proposed wind tunnel experiment can simulate the flow field variation of the visible plume region and the plume rise around the buildings with reasonable accuracy.