Wind effect on natural draft cooling towers induces performance degradation. For a utility like EDF operating 28 natural draft cooling towers for its nuclear power plants, it is an important issue to take this wind effect into account as long as it can lead to large losses. This is the reason why since 30 years EDF ask to manufacturers to take into account this effect in the guarantee. This is done by means of wind curves describing the impact of wind on cold water temperature. But, as long as these curves are based on manufacturer experience, they remain theoretical and include margins. Thus, it is of EDF interest to characterize the real effect of wind on its cooling towers. The paper will shortly describe EDF's performance e-monitoring tool and explain how it can be used to build experimental wind curves. Then, examples will illustrate the way these curves can help to quantify different kind of wind effects like those due to the presence of obstacles close to the tower.
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