Response of Hyperbolic Cooling Towers to Turbulent Wind

The paper outlines a general procedure to predict the dynamic response, including resonance of hyperbolic cooling towers to turbulent winds. Pressure spectra on the tower surface were measured in a boundary layer wind tunnel. Simplifying assumptions have led to the description of pressure spectra and response spectra by means of compact formulation. Application to full-scale towers, including Ferrybridge, is examined. It is concluded that the windward and wake regions are not correlated; the quasi-steady response resides mainly in the coupled harmonics m=1, 2, 3; and the resonant response resides mainly in the harmonics m=4, 5, 6. It is also concluded that while the quasi-steady response increases as wind velocity squared, the resonant response increases faster than wind velocity cubed.