Wind-induced responses of super-large cooling towers

Abstract

Traditional gust load factor (GLF) method, inertial wind load (IWL) method and tri-component method (LRC+IWL) cannot accurately analyze the wind-induced responses of super-large cooling towers, so the real combination formulas of fluctuating wind-induced responses and equivalent static wind loads (ESWLSs) were derived based on structural dynamics and random vibration theory. The consistent coupled method (CCM) was presented to compensate the coupled term between background and resonant response. Taking the super-large cooling tower (H=215 m) of nuclear power plant in Jiangxi Province, China, which is the highest and largest in China, as the example, based on modified equivalent beam-net design method, the aero-elastic model for simultaneous pressure and vibration measurement of super-large cooling tower is firstly carried out. Then, combining wind tunnel test and CCM, the effects of self-excited force on the surface pressures and wind-induced responses are discussed, and the wind-induced response characteristics of background component, resonant component, coupled term between background and resonant response, fluctuating responses, and wind vibration coefficients are discussed. It can be concluded that wind-induced response mechanism must be understood to direct the wind resistant design for super-large cooling towers.