Inelastic Behavior of Hyperbolic Cooling Tower
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 119, Issue 7
Abstract
Inelastic nonlinear behavior of a hyperbolic cooling tower under wind loading is studied using a finite‐element program developed on a Cray Y‐MP. Convergence studies for the elastic and inelastic analyses are performed using three mesh models. It is shown that the mesh convergence plays an important role in accurately predicting the inelastic behavior of a cooling tower. Even though the cooling tower resists the applied forces through membrane stresses, it is found that the bending stresses play an important role in the failure and behavior of the cooling tower. The present analysis gives a shape factor of 1.48, which indicates a significant redistribution of meridional stresses. It is further evidenced by the distribution of meridional reinforcement yielding, which reaches up to 30° from the windward meridian. The present study shows that the reduction in cracking strength does not change the ultimate load. The present practice of using elastic analysis for calculating the design stresses appears to be at least safe and conservative. A more comprehensive study should lead to conclusions that would allow use of a higher‐than‐one shape factor, thus requiring less meridional reinforcement than the present design method does.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 119 • Issue 7 • July 1993
Pages: 2235 - 2255
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 18, 1992
Published online: Jul 1, 1993
Published in print: Jul 1993
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