Influence of latitude wind pressure distribution on the responses of hyperbolodial cooling tower shell

Abstract

Interference effects are of considerable concern for group hyperboloidal cooling towers, but evaluation methods and results are different from each other because of the insufficient understanding on the structure behavior. Therefore, the mechanical performance of hyperboloidal cooling tower shell under wind loads was illustrated according to some basic properties drawn from horizontal rings and cantilever beams. The hyperboloidal cooling tower shell can be regarded as the coupling of horizontal rings and meridian cantilever beams, and this perception is beneficial for understanding the mechanical performance under wind loads. Afterwards, the mean external latitude wind pressure distribution, CP(O), was artificially adjusted to pursue the relationship between different CP(O) and wind-induced responses. It was found that the maximum responses in hyperboloidal cooling tower shell are primarily dominated by the non-uniformity of CP(O) but not the local pressure amplitude CP or overall resistance/drag coefficient CD. In all the internal forces, the maximum amplitude of meridian axial tension shows remarkable sensitivity to the variation of CP(O) and it\'s also the controlling force in structure design, so it was selected as an indicator to evaluate the influence of CP(O) on responses. Based on its sensitivity to different adjustment parameters of CP(O), an comprehensive response influence factor, RIF, was deduced to assess the meridian axial tension for arbitrary CP(O).