Realization and experimentation of a novel vortex cooling tower

The vortex generation motor is a new energy concept for creating artificial vortex and air flow. This paper de-scribes an experimental study of a new vortex tower design carried out at the Birine Nuclear Research Centre in Algeria; this is the first upward vortex tower prototype built in Algeria to evaluate such technology. This work is part of a project to study and conception a prototype of a vortex tower to produce electrical energy using the heat from the nuclear reactor secondary system instead of dissipating it into the atmosphere. The study started by the design and the construction of the vortex tower prototype at a reduced scale (1/5), for applying it later to a full scale in a Nuclear Power Plant. The measurements of temperatures, air velocity, humidity and pressures at several locations inside the prototype were effectuated, as well as the estimation of the installation power output. The analysis of the test results shows that the realized vortex tower can generate an air flow and that the ki-nematic energy field is significant, where the velocity maximum value reached equal to 7.7 m/s with an average velocity of 2.5 m/s. In addition, this configuration has a potential for production of the electrical energy where the average and maximum power output of this tower were calculated and estimated to be 3.896 W and 113.849 W respectively. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the bladed-shaped inlets in the convergence chamber have a significant effect on vortex generation and flow acceleration in the chimney. Improvement of the per-formance of this model at real scale contributes to a country's energy production and will help to minimize the environment thermal pollution.