Influence of ambient conditions and water flow on the performance of pre-cooled natural draft dry cooling towers

•We develop a model to simulate wetted media and natural draft dry cooling tower.•We examine the influence of ambient conditions and water flow on tower performance.•The effect of water flow on tower performance is negligible.•Dry cooling tower can benefit from pre-cooling when the ambient air is hot and dry.•The water evaporation rate of pre-cooling is less than wet cooling tower.

A simplified heat and mass transfer model in cellulose medium was developed to predict the air outlet temperature and humidity after evaporative cooling. The model was used to simulate the operation of pre-cooled Natural Draft Dry Cooling Towers (NDDCTs) by a validated MATLAB code. The effects of supplied water flow rate to the media, ambient temperature and humidity on the performance of pre-cooled NDDCTs were investigated. It was found that the effect of the selected water flow rates on tower performance is negligible. Both ambient temperature and humidity affect the tower performance.