ANALYSIS OF HYPERBOLIC COOLING-TOWERS FOR WIND LOADS WITH ACMC AND SEMI-LOOF SHELL ELEMENTS

The work presented here deals with the finite element analysis of hype rbolic cooling tower under quasi-static wind load, using a constant me ridional curvature element and semi-loof shell elements. The circumfer ential wind pressure distribution around the hyperbolic cooling tower has been represented by Fourier cosine series. Using this wind load mo del and the finite elements mentioned, two independent finite element packages have been developed and implemented on a PC/AT-386 computer. Using these packages, a fixed base cooling tower has been analysed. Th e results have been compared with the solutions obtained by Albasiny a nd Martin [1] and Zienkiewicz [2].