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US 4,309,366 AGranted
Induced draft cooling tower with improved inner support structure
AssigneeCoignet S.A.
InventorBernard Fougea
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AssigneeCoignet S.A.
InventorBernard Fougea
Estimating the term…
An induced draft cooling tower having an annular outer support structure for the dispersion section and the inner support structure for the ventilation section. The inner support structure is essentially constructed of precast reinforced concrete elements and comprises a first plurality of columns supporting a circumferential beam, a second plurality of columns arranged around a hexagonal central tower in a hexagonal network with beams extending between and supported in slotted capitals of the second plurality of beams. The diffusers which are precast reinforced concrete shells include a toroidal base element which bears on three beams supported on a column of the second plurality coaxial to the diffuser. Stacks of annular elements rise from the upper edges of the base elements. The lower edges of the base elements are polygonal and substantially meet the lower edges of adjacent base elements. Slabs cover openings between lower edge segments of base elements and in the peripheral area beyond the diffusers. The resulting inner support structure is in effect monolithic.
An induced draft cooling tower of the type having an annular outer support structure for supporting a dispersion section including a hot water supply basin and an inner support structure for supporting a ventilation section essentially constructed of precast reinforced concrete elements supporting a plurality of regularly spaced diffusers, each of the diffusers being adapted to accommodate blower and drive means at its base, said inner support structure comprising a regular hexagonal cenral tower and a circumferential beam concentric to the said central tower defining the perimeter of said inner support structure, a first plurality of circumferential columns supporting said circumferential beam, a regular hexagonal structural network including a second plurality of columns disposed at apices of said hexagonal structural network, beams extending between and supported by said second plurality of columns, said diffusers bearing on said beams of said hexagonal structural network and thus supported by said first plurality of columns.
A cooling tower according to claim 5, wherein continuous in situ concrete joints are formed along the peripheral lips of said base elements of all of said diffusers to define continuity therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Direct-contact trickle coolers
Buildings forming part of cooling plants: cooling towers
Energy efficient heating, ventilation or air conditioning [HVAC]: efficient control or regulation technologies, e.g. for control of refrigerant…
Gas and liquid contact apparatus: cooling towers
Term ended 20 Jun 2001 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
The present invention relates to improvements in induced draft cooling towers, and more particularly to the inner support structure for the ventilation section of such cooling towers.
Such cooling towers are used for cooling the hot water from the condenser circuits of power plants. Present day cooling towers comprise a so-called dispersion section including a raised, hot water supply basin to which hot water from the condenser circuits of the power plant is delivered. The water is allowed to drop or is sprayed from the basin into the actual dispersion section which is provided with fills or baffles which in association with air entering through the outer periphery of the cooling tower causes some of the water to evaporate thereby reducing the temperature of the rest of the water. The moist air is then drawn inwardly to the ventilation section by a plurality of diffusers provided with blowers which exhaust the moist air upwards to the atmosphere. The rest of the water is collected in the lower, cool water basin at a temperature about 10.degree. C. less than that of the water in the upper hot water supply basin.
The capacity of such cooling towers has grown over the years to keep pace with the increase in size of power plants which today commonly produce 900 megawatts or more. For such power plants the cooling towers must be capable of dissipating of the order of 3000 megawatts in cooling the hot condenser water. This calls for cooling towers of ever-increasing size.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will be brought out in the description which follows, given by way of nonlimiting example of an embodiment of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic general plan view of the ventilation section with its support structure of a cooling tower embodying the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged bottom view of a junction of three beams and the lips of three diffusers encircled by chain-dotted line II in FIG. 1;
Reference will first be had to FIG. 7 which shows a general elevational view of an induced draft cooling tower embodying an inner support structure for supporting the ventilation section embodying the invention. Before describing in detail the construction of the inner support structure the rest of the cooling tower will be briefly described.
At the outer periphery of the cooling tower is provided an annular outer support structure for supporting the ventilation section including the upper hot water supply basin 35. The annular outer support comprises a plurality of annularly spaced independent towers 34 defined by superposed portal frames 38 stacked on one another, with cantilevers carrying inclined louvers 33 and wind braces (not shown) connected between the portal frames. Each tower is thus self-supporting and self-stabilized.
To give a reader a better idea of the relative sizes of the ventilation and dispersion sections it should be pointed out that the outer diameter of the outer support structure may be about 170 meters and the diameter of the inner support structure about 75 meters and the height of the cooling tower to the top of the diffusers about 30 meters.