Development and verification of a model for predicting fog over cooling ponds

摘要

At low atmospheric temperatures, between 5°C and -20°C, water evaporated from an open water surface, such as a power plant cooling pond, can cause frequent fog formations. To study the environmental effect of proposed cooling pond designs, a simulation model was developed which provided the following: the amount of water evaporated from the surface of the pond as a function of the pond surface temperatures and atmospheric conditions (the source terms); the diffusion of the water vapor and liquid water content by the atmosphere, and the resulting spatial distribution of quantity of liquid water in the atmosphere, which defines the visibility ranges. The model was tested and verified for an operating cooling pond and applied to design cooling ponds.