Cooling Towers Using Measured Wind Data

The purpose of this study is to collect and interpret the results of full-scale wind-pressure measurements that are available for hyperbolic cooling towers and to determine the corresponding displacements and forces in the prototype tower through finite element analysis. In some cases the time intervals for which the pressures were recorded were too long to reflect any dynamic response and static analysis is sufficient. However, in two more recent studies a shorter time interval was used and a dynamic analysis was thought to be appropriate. The main emphasis of this paper was directed towards the elucidation of a time-history analysis method that will have value for the prediction of the structural response of prototype hyperbolic cooling towers due to the measured loadings with a view towards the eventual inclusion of nonlinearities. Also, some dynamic response parameters in the form of amplification and gust factors are calculated using limited ranges of the available time records and some simplifying assumptions necessitated by available resources.