Power Station Generator Air Cooler

Power Station Generator Air Cooler

When the generator is running, the stator, rotor and other components will generate a lot of heat due to electromagnetic induction and resistance effect, resulting in an increase in internal temperature. If the temperature is too high, it will reduce the performance of insulation materials, shorten the life of the equipment, and even cause failure.

The core role of the air cooler is to achieve cooling through forced convection heat transfer:

Hot air (temperature usually 50-80 ℃) inside the generator is forced into the cooler by the fan;

Hot air flows through the heat transfer tube bundle (outside the tube) of the cooler, and the cooling water (or cold air) flowing in the tube bundle for heat exchange;

The temperature of the hot air is lowered after the release of heat (usually down to 30-40 ℃), and then sent back to the generator The hot air is cooled down after releasing heat (usually to 30-40℃), and then sent back to the generator for internal cooling;

The cooling water (or cold air) inside the tube bundle absorbs the heat and then discharges it, and is cooled down by cooling towers or other cooling equipment and then circulated for use.

High heat transfer efficiency: a large amount of heat needs to be taken away quickly in a limited space (the heat dissipation of a single large generator can be up to several megawatts), which is usually achieved by optimizing the arrangement of tube bundles and increasing the number of fins.

Corrosion resistance: If using cooling water (especially circulating water with poor water quality), the tube bundle needs to resist corrosion (e.g., stainless steel or titanium alloy), to avoid leakage affecting the generator insulation.

Reliability: Long-term continuous operation (annual operating time is usually more than 8000 hours), the structure needs to be designed to withstand vibration (mechanical vibration during generator operation) and temperature changes (hot and cold).

Low resistance loss: the resistance of air and cooling water in the flow process needs to be small, in order to reduce the energy consumption of fans and pumps.