Development and Design of NPP Fan Cooling Tower

One of the methods of improving the reliability of nuclear power facilities is to increase the efficiency of the loop cooling system for reactor-power equipment (RPE) of nuclear power plants (NPP). The most important element of the loop cooling system is the evaporative cooling tower (ECT). The effectiveness of its work very much depends on the climatic situation, when operating in the southern, tropical conditions of the Russian Federation and abroad, especially in conditions of global warming and the development of the atmospheric greenhouse effect. To compensate the climatic factor of standard convection cooling tower operation, it is possible to additionally introduce cooling powers in the form of small-sized, highly efficient fan cooling towers (FCT) with forced cooling. On the basis of the existing design solutions, to ensure the stable operation of the RPE cooling system, it is necessary to install 10–15 fan cooling towers near one evaporative cooling tower. There is a need to develop separate foundations and carry out special earthworks for each fan cooling tower. In addition to the above, a fan cooling tower is a system with the potential to modernize equipment (sprinklers, motors, impellers, water traps), which can lead to an increase in constant or dynamic (mainly vibrating loads from fan operation), reducing the bearing capacity of the foundation. In order to avoid a decrease in bearing capacity, as well as its overload, it is necessary to take measures to strengthen it in accordance with regulatory and technical requirements. As part of this work, the loads acting on the fan cooling tower foundation are collected, and its design scheme is developed. On the basis of a literary review, two alternative options to strengthen the fan cooling tower foundation are proposed to ensure a promising upgrade of equipment with increased weight. On the basis of the analysis of the developed computational and analytical model, it is determined that the loads from the center of the foundation, owing to the proposed options to strengthen the fan cooling foundation, are redistributed along the edges, reducing the maximum load by 5 times. It is shown that the second option of mesh reinforcement benefits economically compared to the first option (reinforcement with high-quality, rolling elements), reducing the cost of foundation development by 1.2 times.