Abstract: In an apparatus for cooling of cooling water trickler plates are arranged essentially in parallel. Along one side of each trickler plate water sprayed from the top trickles down, while the other side is kept dry. Thus a pair of adjacent trickler plates each forms a duct through which the cooling air flows. The trickler plates are provided with depressions in the wet side protruding from the dry side in order to increase the dry cooling effect with respect to the wet cooling effect.

Abstract: A cooling tower is provided with a crown inwardly tapered towards the upper discharge opening defined by the upper rim of the crown to create a pressure differential greater on the inside than on the outside of the crown to inhibit cold air break-ins in still air or winds of low velocity. The cooling tower shell is tapered inwardly in the crown region and the angle between the tangent to the internal contour and the vertical in said crown region of the shell is preferably chosen to be not smaller than results from the following equation: ##EQU1## in which .alpha. is the angle in question, g is the acceleration due to gravity, .rho..sub.a and .rho..sub.i are the gas densities inside (i) and outside (a) of the cooling tower, z is the vertical coordinate, d.sub.o and d(z) are the diameters of the internal shell contour at the level z=o and z, respectively, and w.sub.o is the gas velocity at the level z=o.

Abstract: A cooling tower is provided with a crown inwardly tapered towards the upper discharge opening defined by the upper rim of the crown to create a pressure differential greater on the inside than on the outside of the crown to inhibit cold air break-ins in still air or winds of low velocity. To reduce the effect of side winds of high velocity, the crown may carry a wind-deflector ring with an upwardly-inclined deflecting surface to inhibit the creation of a vortex over the tower. The tower may be suspended by cables from a central mast, and the wind-deflector ring may be suspended by separate cables from the mast, these latter cables being tensioned between the masthead and the lower part of the crown by means of a support ring arranged at the base of the wind-deflector ring.

Abstract: A water cooling tower and method which provides for both wet and dry cooling within the same vertical space and significantly reduces the discharge of water particles out of the tower. Water is deposited on one side of each of a plurality of trickler plates and flows downwardly under the influence of gravity substantially undisturbed as a low speed film. Air flows at low speed by natural draught in a substantially undisturbed path on the other side of each of the plates. Important dimensional ratios and construction details are disclosed.