Prediction of back pressure on air-cooled unit with effect of ambient wind

A method to predict the operating back pressure for an air-cooled unit was proposed by adding the program for condensation heat transfer between the cold air and steam turbine exhaust in the finned tube exchangers. The performance of the air-cooled unit under windy conditions was simulated, and operating back pressures under different windy speeds and temperatures were predicted with the present method. The result shows that the fan flow rate of the air-cooled unit drops from 476.9 m³/s to 328.6 m³/s when the wind speed increases from 0 m/s to 12 m/s. The heat transfer rate also drops from 15.86 MW to 12.45 MW, and the corresponding operating back pressure rises from 21.5 kPa to 62.5 kPa. In addition, the heat transfer rate drops from 16.36 MW to 15.43 MW and the operating back pressure rises from 12 kPa to 25 kPa when the wind temperature increases from 290 K to 306 K.