Abstract
Pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (pGFRP) profiles have been used in cooling tower frame structures for decades. Its advantageous properties such as high strength-to-mass ratio and corrosion resistance make it well-suited for the highly humid environment of cooling towers. On the other hand, pGFRP also has a relatively low modulus of elasticity, about 10% that of steel, which makes the structures more flexible. This results in low natural frequencies and brings the risk of resonance to dynamic loads such as wind fluctuation. The present study assesses the response of a pGFRP cooling tower under dynamic wind loads. A finite element (FE) model of the structure was developed to obtain its modal properties and assess the structure’s dynamic response. A spectral representation method was implemented in Python to generate artificial wind fluctuation time series, which were input into the FE model to produce the fluctuating component of the wind drag force. The results show that, despite the flexibility, the structure satisfies the serviceability limit states and can be safely exposed to dynamic wind loads, benefitting from the material’s favorable properties.
Published Version
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