It is common practice in India to use natural draught cooling towers for cooling hot water generated from thermal and nuclear power plants. State of the art in the analysis and design of successfully completed natural draught cooling towers having heights of 88 m, 118 m and 165 m are presented in this paper. This paper also presents the evolution of analytical and design practices from smaller height towers to a 165 m high tower, which is possibly the tallest in Asia. The large size of the shell results from the fact that a single natural draught cooling tower has been provided for a 500 MWe thermal power station, requiring 60,000 m~3 of water to be cooled with an approach of 4.7°C. India is in the process of developing 1000 MWe nuclear power units with single cooling towers for the same and a low approach for a tropical country like India, result in cooling towers larger than anywhere else. The experience of design and construction of such cooling towers has an important relationship to the future to develop technology for the construction of even larger cooling towers for 1000 MWe power units.
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