Wind-break walls with optimized setting angles for natural draft dry cooling tower with vertical radiators

•Aerodynamic field around dry cooling tower is presented with numerical model.•Performances of cooling deltas are figured out by air inflow velocity analysis.•Setting angles of wind-break walls are optimized to improve cooling performance.•Optimized walls can reduce the interference on air inflow at low wind speeds.•Optimized walls create stronger outside secondary flow at high wind speeds. To get larger cooling performance enhancement for natural draft dry cooling tower with vertical cooling deltas under crosswind, setting angles of wind-break walls were optimized. Considering specific structure of each cooling delta, an efficient numerical model was established and validated by some published results. Aerodynamic fields around cooling deltas under various crosswind speeds were presented, and outlet water temperatures of the two columns of cooling delta were exported as well. It was found that for each cooling delta, there was a difference in cooling performance between the two columns, which is closely related to the characteristic of main airflow outside the tower. Using the present model, air inflow deviation angles at cooling deltas’ inlet were calculated, and the effects of air inflow deviation on outlet water temperatures of the two columns for corresponding cooling delta were explained in detail. Subsequently, at cooling deltas’ inlet along radial direction of the tower, setting angles of wind-break walls were optimized equal to air inflow deviation angles when no airflow separation appeared outside the tower, while equal to zero when outside airflow separation occurred. In addition, wind-break walls with optimized setting angles were verified to be extremely effective, compared to the previous radial walls.