Two cooling water units were being constructed at the BP Whiting
Refinery facility. BP Whiting Refinery would like some assurance
that, with the current design, surface vortex would not form in
the cooling pump suction bay. Surface vortex could reduce pump
water delivery and reduce pump reliability. Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) was used to model the suction bay. Computational
domain of the suction bay Three-dimensional CFD models of the
cooling tower suction bays were developed to simulate the
critical flow conditions at the suction bays. The suction bays
were modeled for designed operating condition where all pumps
were operating and off-designed operating condition when one of
the pump was shut off. Flow streamlines for the case where one
pump is shut off The simulation results for the ideal operating
case where all pump were operating indicated there were very fex
vortices formed around the corner of each suction bay. Increased
number of vortices was present, especially in the area near
concrete pill