Influence of wind pressure patterns on the buckling resistance of hyperboloid steel cooling towers

Abstract

When multiple cooling towers are built in a power plant, the wind load acting on the tower shell is asymmetrical owing to interference between the cooling towers. However, studies on the buckling resistance of steel cooling towers under asymmetrical wind loads are scarce. In this study, a finite element model of a 160-m-high hyperboloid single-layer reticulated-shell steel cooling tower was established. Nonlinear buckling analyses of the cooling tower were performed by considering 243 symmetrical and 216 asymmetrical wind load patterns to study the influence of the characteristic parameters of the mean wind pressure coefficient (Cp) on the buckling resistance of the cooling tower. The results showed that the most adverse wind load pattern was the distribution with the largest stagnation pressure on the windward side, largest wind suction on the crosswind side, and smallest wind suction on the leeward side. The symmetry of the wind load was not a key factor affecting the buckling resistance of a steel cooling tower. In addition, the characteristic values of Cp have a greater influence on the buckling resistance than the characteristic angles. The effect of the stagnation pressure on the buckling resistance was approximately three times that of the largest wind suction on the crosswind side.