| MadSci Network: Engineering |
The shape you are likely asking about I the distinctive hyperbolic shape of natural draft cooling towers. There are three general types of cooling towers. Wet towers in which the warm water flows over a packing or fill material in a rectangular or circular structure. The air flow can be natural circulation, mechanically assisted, or a hybrid of the two. The natural circulation and hybrid towers have hyperbolic profiles. Dry towers are air-water heat exchangers and operate in a similar fashion to your car's radiator. Hybrid designs combining the wet and dry towers have also been developed. Note that these cooling towers, including the hyperbolic profile towers, are not specific to a nuclear power plant, but can be used with any closed cycle power plant. For more information on cooling towers try the cooling tower link on the Virtual Nuclear Tourist web site at http://www.cannon. net/~gonyeau/nuclear/index.htm. If you prefer an off-line reference try the "Energy Deskbook" by Samuel Glasstone. It was published by the US Department of Energy as report DOE/IR/05114-1 and has a good section on the basic types of cooling towers.1
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