Comparative Study Of The Effect Of Seismic And Wind Loads On Cooling Tower With A-Frame And H-Frame Column Supports

Abstract

Cooling tower is a heat rejection device, which extracts waste heat to the atmosphere though the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature. R/C cooling towers are used for many kinds of industrial and power plants. These are huge structures and also show thin shell structures. R/C cooling towers are subjected to its self-weight and the dynamic load such as an earthquake motion and a wind effects. This paper deals with the study of cooling towers of 124.8m high above ground level. The cooling towers have been analyzed for wind loads using Finite Element Analysis by assuming fixity at the shell base. The wind loads on these cooling towers have been calculated in the form of pressures by using the design wind pressure coefficients as given in IS: 11504-1985 code along with the design wind pressures at different levels as per IS: 875 (Part 3) - 1987 code. The seismic load will be carried out for 0.1g, 0.2g & 0.3g in accordance with IS: 1893 by modal analysis. For the purpose of comparison an existing tower of a thermal power plant is considered. For other models of cooling tower, H frame column support varied with respect to the reference tower. The results of the analysis include the stress and strain contours. And also the stress and strain contours are plotted and modes of deflection are mapped.