J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn.

111 (2012) 3039

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Journal of Wind Engineering

and Industrial Aerodynamics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jweia

A new methodology for analysis of equivalent static wind loads

on super-large cooling towers
S.T. Ke a, Y.J. Ge b,n, L. Zhao b, Y. Tamura c
a

Department of Civil Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Yudao Road 29, Nanjing 210016, China
State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Siping Road 1239, Shanghai 200092, China
c
Tokyo Polytechnic University, 1583 Iiyama, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0297, Japan
b

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 6 January 2012
Received in revised form
6 August 2012
Accepted 23 August 2012
Available online 23 October 2012

For tall buildings and typical long-span spatial structures, the background and resonant components
of wind-induced uctuating response should be taken into account by different calculation theories.
The total uctuating response is obtained through the square root of sum of squares (hereafter referred
to as SRSS) combination (hereafter referred to as tri-component method). However, this method cannot
consider the modal coupling effects of the background and resonant components, nor the coupling
effects of the resonant component for super-large cooling towers. This paper presents a new approach
for analyzing wind-induced responses and corresponding equivalent static wind loads (hereafter
referred to as ESWLs) by a consistent coupling method (hereafter referred to as CCM) based on
structural random vibration theory. Firstly, the rened denition of the cross term between background
and resonant component is explained based on a mode-acceleration method, and covariance matrices
of coupled elastic restoring force and resonant elastic restoring force are proposed. Secondly, based on
covariance matrix theory, CCM is proposed for calculating the background and resonant components
and for compensating the cross term between background and resonant components, and the ESWLs of
all components are derived by load response correlation theory. Finally, calculation of wind-induced
responses and ESWLs for a super-large cooling tower 215 m high demonstrates the superiority and
effectiveness of the present approach, the characteristics of ESWL distributions of background, resonant
and cross term between background and resonant component, and the wind-induced coefcients for
super-large cooling towers are extracted.
& 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Super-large cooling towers
Equivalent static wind loads
Wind-induced response
Wind-induced coefcients
Wind tunnel test
Consistent coupled method

1. Introduction
With the rapid development of nuclear power plants on the
mainland of China, a series of super-large hyperbolic cooling towers
have been built. The forms of these structures are complex and
variable, which requires urgent research on wind-induced effects on
them. Super-large cooling towers have become typical wind-sensitive
structures (Niemann and Kopper, 1998; Orlando, 2001; Busch et al.,
2002) due to their low and closely spaced frequencies, which results
in strong modal response coupling effects. However, the method of
analyzing wind-induced responses based on stochastic vibration
theory by numeric calculation is too complex for engineering design.
An alternative approach is to present wind loading data in the form of
equivalent static wind load distributions that produce peak load
effects, rather than the load effects themselves.

Corresponding author. Tel.: 086 21 65982397.

E-mail address: keshitang@163.com (Y.J. Ge).

0167-6105/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2012.08.001

In current wind resistant design practice, the gust loading factor

method (hereafter referred to as GLF) introduced by Davenport
(Davenport, 1967) and the inertial wind loading method (hereafter
referred to as IWL) (Zhang, 2002) adopted in the Chinese loading
code for design of tall building structures both originate from the
concept of ESWLs. Based on reasonable thought and simple application, wind-induced responses of other structures have been analyzed by borrowing ideas from the GLF method. Design codes
(GB50009-2001 2006; VGB-R 610Ue 2005 and BS 4485 1996) for
cooling towers in China and other countries also adopt GLF to
consider dynamic wind loads and wind vibration effects under
different terrain categories, but tower heights should be limited to
165 m. Other researches (Bartoli et al., 1997; Noh et al., 2003; Ke
et al., 2010) demonstrate that wind-induced responses of superlarge cooling towers have kernel issues of multiple distributions of
uctuating wind loads, multi-mode vibration and multi-equivalent
objectives. Thus, there are potential safety hazards in designing
super-large cooling towers if the gust loading factor is used to
consider the dynamic buffeting response. At the same time, insufcient study on ESWLs for super-large cooling towers restricts the

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

development of these structures. Therefore, there is an urgent need

to research more reliable methods of determining ESWLs on superlarge cooling towers.
In contrast to the GLF approach, an equivalent static wind load
representation in terms of background and resonant load distribution
(hereafter referred to as tri-component method) leads to a physically
meaningful and realistic load description (Davenport, 1985; Holmes,
1992; Holmes and Kasperski, 1996; Irwin, 1998; Zhou et al., 2000).
The background component can be treated as a quasi-static load
determined based on the load-response-correlation (LRC) approach
(Kasperski, 1992; Kasperski and Niemann, 1992). The resonant load
component follows the distribution of the inertial load and can be
expressed in terms of modal inertial loads (Davenport, 1985; Irwin,
1998; Holmes, 1999; King, 1999; Chen et al., 2000a,b). Universal
ESWLs (Katsumura et al., 2007) could reproduce the largest load
effects in all structural members based on the results calculated by
traditional and single objective ESWLs. Finally, the uctuating windinduced response is obtained by SRSS combination of background
and resonant components, which cannot determine the coupling
component between background and resonant response. However,
the proportion of this coupling component reaches 20% in windinduced buffeting response of super-large cooling towers, which
equals the contribution of the background component, and results
in additional components of wind-induced response and ESWLs.
In this paper, the theoretical combination formulas of uctuating wind-induced responses and ESWLs are derived based on
structural dynamics and random vibration theory. The rened
analysis method is rstly presented as a consistent coupling
method (hereafter referred to as CCM) to compensate the coupling component between background and resonant components.
The calculation of wind-induced responses, wind vibration coefcients and ESWL distributions of the super-large cooling tower of
the Jiangxi nuclear power plant, which is the highest and biggest
cooling tower in Asia, demonstrates the superiority and effectiveness of the present approach. Then, the characteristics of ESWL
distributions of background, resonant and cross terms between
the background and resonant components and the wind-induced
coefcients for super-cooling towers are extracted.

2. Formula derivation

m
X
i1
n
X

fi qi,b t
fi qi,b t

i1

m
X
i1
m
X

n
X

fi qi,r t

fi qi,b t

i m1

fi qi,r t fytgb,n fytgr,m

i1

where F matrix of modes of vibration, Fi ith mode of vibration

vector, qi,b(t)ith generalized displacement vector considering
only quasi-static contribution, qi,r(t)ith generalized displacement
vector considering only resonant contribution, {y(t)}b,n response
vector considering quasi-static contribution of full modes, and
{y(t)}r,m response vector considering only resonant contribution
of former m modes.
2.2. Traditional solution method in frequency domain
There are two solution methods for calculating the total
uctuating response in the frequency domain
The rst method is to combine the background and resonant
response with the SRSS method, which is expressed by

s2t s2b,n s2r,m

where st, sb,n, sr,m root-mean-square (RMS) value of response

component vector of {y(t)}, {y(t)}b,n, {y(t)}r,m, respectively.
The background component sb,n can be treated as a quasi-static
load determined and calculated by the LRC approach, and the
resonant component sr,m is expressed in terms of modal inertial
loads. This method cannot consider the modal coupling effects
between the background and resonant component, nor the
coupling effect of the resonant component.
The second combination formula is expressed as

s2t s2r,m s2b:m 2rr,b sr,m sb,m

It is noted that sb,m root-mean-square (RMS) value of response

component vector of {y(t)}b,m, and rr,b correlation coefcient
between background and resonant component, and is given by:

rr,b

s2r,b
sr sb

m P
m
R P
j1k1

sqrt

m P
m
R P
j1k1

2.1. Basic hypothesis

31

fj,i fk,i Sqb,j, qr,k odo

fj,i fk,i Sqr,j, qr,k odo

m P
m
R P
j1k1

fj,i fk,i Sqb,j, qb,k odo

6
The dynamic response of exible structures to turbulent wind
excitation can be expressed in terms of the matrix equations

_
Mfytg
Cfytg
Kfytg fptg

where {p(t)} means external stochastic wind load vector; M, C,

and K mean mass, damping and stiffness matrix, respectively; and
y(t), y(t)and y(t) are the joint acceleration, velocity and displacement vectors, respectively.
Using modal coordinates, Eq. (1) can be expressed as
fq i tg 2zi oi fq_ i tg o2j fqi tg ff i t=mni g

where qi(t)generalized displacement vector of the ith mode, and

fi(t) generalized modal force vector of the ith mode.
For wind-induced responses of exible structures, the resonant
contributions of high-frequency modes are usually neglected, so the
dynamic displacement can be represented as
n
m
X

 X
fytg F qt
fi qi t
fi qi t
i1

m
X
i1

fi qi,b t

i1
m
X
i1

fi qi,r t

n
X

i m1

fi qi,b t

n
X
i m1

2.3. Modied solution method in frequency domain

According to Eq. (3), the combination formula of uctuating
wind-induced response is expressed as

fi qi t

s2t s2r,m s2b:n 2rr,b sr,m sb,n s2r,m s2b,n s2c,nm

i m1
n
X

It can be found in Eq. (5) that the background component includes

only the quasi-static contribution of the former m modes, and
accordingly, the cross term between background and resonant
components also considers only the coupling contribution of the
former m modes.
The tri-component method based on SRSS combination cannot
consider the cross term sc, which is acceptable for a small value of
rr,b. However, it is not reasonable any more to neglect the same
term for super-large cooling towers, due to the complicated
calculation process of Eq. (6) and the efciency of the theory for
the ESWL cross term.

fi qi,r t

where sc,nm root-mean-square (RMS) value of response component vector of cross term.

32

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

The greatest difference from the traditional methods is that in

Eq. (7) the total uctuating response considers the background
component of full modes, and the cross term considers the
coupling contribution between the former m resonant modes and
full background modes.




1
1
Hni o
Hj o
SF i ,F j o
Ki
Kj
Hnr,i oHr,j oSF i ,F j o

12

where Hr,i(o)Hi(o)  1/Ki, and is dened as the resonant transfer function of the ith mode; and Ki stiffness matrix of the ith
mode, and can be expressed as

3. Consistent coupling method

Ki
3.1. Unied theory model

ffgi Kffgi

13

ffgi ffgi

The covariance of generalized resonant displacement is given by

Z 1
Z 1
Hrn SFF Hr do
Hrn FT RDSAA DT RT FHr do
14
C qq r

As is generally known, the background component can be

obtained from the covariance matrix of external wind load {p(t)}
through the LRC approach. It is signicant that the resonant and
cross terms can be regarded as quasi-static response under
inertial load excitation and coupling elastic restoring force, which
is rstly proposed in this paper. Then, the resonant and cross
response can be obtained using the LRC approach. Thus, Eq. (7)
can be expressed by

where A, Dtime coordinate vector and proper modes matrix using

the POD method, and SAA cross-power spectrum of time coordinate
vector A.
Accordingly, the resonant elastic restoring force vector {Peqq}r
can be represented as

IC pp t IT IC pp b IT IC pp r IT IC pp c IT

fP eqq gr Kfytr g KFfqtgr MFLfqtgr

where [Cpp]t covariance matrix of total uctuating elastic restoring force; [Cpp]b covariance matrix of external wind load {p(t)};
[Cpp]r covariance matrix of resonant elastic restoring force;
[Cpp]c covariance matrix of coupling elastic restoring force; and
Iinuence coefcient matrix.
The advantage of the LRC method is that the coupling effect of
all modes is considered through the covariance matrix, which is
utilized by the unied theory modal to calculate the resonant
component and cross term exactly. Furthermore, the theory
foundation of ESWLs for cross term response are presented by
the LRC method based on the covariance matrix of coupling
elastic restoring force [Cpp]c.
It can be easily seen from Eq. (8) that in order to calculate the
coupling component, the covariance matrix of coupling elastic
restoring force [Cpp]c is expressed by
C pp c C pp t C pp b C pp r

3.2. Expressions of [Cpp]t, [Cpp]r and [Cpp]c

1

1

2
1,

15

2
m),

and {q(t)}r vector of generalized

where L diag(o y, o
displacement response containing only resonant component.
The cross-covariance matrix [Cpp]r of {Peqq}r is expressed as:
C pp r fP eqq gr fP eqq gr MFLfqtgr fqtgr LT FT MT
MFLC pp r LT FT MT
Z 1

MFL
Hr on FT RDSAA DT RT FHr odo LT FT MT
1

16
It can be easily seen from Eq. (16) and Eq. (18) that the accuracy of
[Cpp]r is determined by the number of the calculating mode and the
dynamic characteristics of the structure, and [Cpp]t can be obtained
from Eq. (18) as long as the resonant transfer function Hr(o)
is replaced by the generalized transfer function H(o). According to
Eq. (12) [Cpp]c is obtained by
C pp c C pp t C pp b C pp r
Z 1

Hn FT RDSAA oDT RT FHdo LT FT MT
MFL
1

Z 1

T T
 RGEl D R MFL
Hr n FT RDSAA oDT RT FHr do
1

The generalized displacement vector considering only quasistatic contribution qi,b(t) is expressed by
T

qi,b t

f i t
fi pt
n
ki
fTi Kfi

f i t
n
ki

1
1

Z
E

L F M MFL
Z 1

HHr n FT RDSAA oDT RT FHHr do



1
F t

hi uF i tudu i
Ki
1
1
Z 1

F j t t
hj vF j t tvdv
ei2pot dt

Kj
1

LT FT MT RDEl DT RT

17

where El diag(l1, y, lm), and li means the eigenvalues of the

covariance matrix of external wind load {p(t)} obtained by POD.
3.3. ESWLs of background, resonant and cross components

11

Accordingly, the cross-power spectrum of generalized resonant displacement between the ith mode and the jth mode is
expressed as
Z 1
Rqr,i ,qr,j tei2pot dt
Sqr,i ,qr,j o
1
Z 1

Eqr,i t,qr,j t tei2pot dt

Z

1

10

where ki* stiffness of ith mode. Then, combining Eq. (3), the
generalized displacement vector considering only the resonant
contribution qi,r(t) is expressed by
qi,r t qi tqi,b t qi t

Based on the unied theory model, taking the resonant component as the example, an arbitrary dynamic response of interest r(t) is
given by
frtgr IfPeqq gr

18

and the covariance matrix of resonant response r(t) is expressed as

C rr r frtgr frtgr IC pp r IT
IMFLC pp r LT FT MT IT
The RMS value vector of resonant response is given by
q
rR,r diagC rr r
where diag(  )column vector of diagonal elements of [Crr]r.

19

20

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

The ESWLs resonant component of response Ri is

T

P er,i C pp r I i =sRi,r

21

where Ii is the row vector of inuence coefcient matrix I.

Accordingly, we can obtain the cross term of wind-induced
response and ESWLs using the same thought with [Cpp]c replaced
by [Cpp]r.
Taking the cross component as an example, an arbitrary
dynamic response of interest r(t) is given by
frtgc IfPeqq gc

22

and the covariance matrix of cross response r(t) is expressed as

C rr c frtgc frtgc IC pp c IT IMFLC pp c LT FT MT IT
23

33

Accordingly, the equivalent static peak load distribution is

given by
Pe P signR  W B Peb W R P er W C P ec

28

where WB, WR and WC are weighting factor of Peb, weighting factor of

Per and weighting factor of Pec, respectively, and are expressed by
WR

sr
;
st

WB

sb
;
st

WC

sc
st

29

Finally, the accuracy of the combination of total ESWLs for

CCM is veried as below:
I  Pe I  P signR  W B Peb W R P er W C P ec
R signR  sb  W B sr  W R sc  W C
q
R signR  s2r s2b signdiagC rr c s2c Ra

30

The RMS value vector of the cross component response is given

by

rR,c

q
diagC rr c

4. ESWLs on super-large cooling towers

24

where diag(  )column vector of diagonal elements of [Crr]c.

The ESWL cross component of response Ri is
P ec,i C pp I i T =sRi,c

25

where Ii is the row vector of inuence coefcient matrix I.

It is worth noting that the value of the covariance matrix of
coupling component using Eq. (23) might be negative, which
indicates that calculation by the tri-component method will overestimate the response. However, the absolute value of these elements
of [Crr]c should be adopted in Eq. (25), but combination of total
response or ESWLs of the inuence of minus must be considered.
3.4. Combination of CCM
The total uctuating response is given by
q
st s2r s2b signdiagC rr c s2c

26

Accordingly, the totally response of the tower is given by

q
27
Ra R g  s2r s2b signdiagC rr c s2c

In order to discuss the modal coupling mechanism of ESWLs,

and to verify the precision of CCM for super-large cooling towers,
a case study on a super-large cooling tower in Jiangxi nuclear
power plant is made.
The main dimensions of the cooling tower are: height215 m,
top diameter 104 m, inlet opening diameter156 m, and diameter
of V-shape column1.3 m. In order to compute the dynamic
response of the cooling tower, the uctuating wind pressures acting
on the shell surface were measured in a wind tunnel test. Then,
based on a modied equivalent beam-net design method (Zhao
et al., 2008), the aero-elastic model for simultaneous pressure and
vibration measurement of a super-large cooling tower is rstly put
forward to check the validity of responses for a super-large cooling
tower with CCM. The test was carried out in a TJ-3 Boundary Layer
Wind Tunnel in Tongji University.
The aero-elastic model consists mainly of 14  36 spatial thin
steel sheets, which provide reduced-scale stiffness and truly simulated bending, torsion and axis stiffness components by modifying
three-dimensional sizes of each thin sheet, such as depth and width,
and of 12  36 pieces of copper additional masses, which simulate
reduced-scale mass distribution (see Fig. 1). More design information

Fig. 1. Aero-elastic model for simultaneous pressure and vibration measurement.

34

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

of the aero-elastic model can be referred in Table 1. The geometrical

shape of the aero-elastic model is simulated by a thin plastic
membrane less than 0.05 mm thick. There are 8 laser displacement
sensors xed on a horizontal tray, which can be moved vertically to
6 measurement heights. Fig. 2 illustrates measured points and height
for outside wind pressure distribution and measured sections for
wind-induced vibration response. There are totally 12  36 external
pressure taps, distributed in 12 vertical sections, and in 36 horizontal
circular directions for the external pressure model.
The front 5 natural frequencies of the model determined from
spectral analysis of the excited response were in good agreement
with design requirements, in which the smallest value is 9.90 Hz
(the related full-scale value is 0.66 Hz). The frequency is 40.10 Hz
when the mass system is discharged from the aero-elastic model,
so the model without the mass system is used as a rigid model to
get the surface wind pressures. The damping ratio is about 2.45%,

which also meets the requirements for reinforced concrete material.

Measured results for the aero-elastic model are listed in Table 2.
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 display the corresponding natural frequencies
of former 200 modes and the transfer function of former 10
modes. From the detailed dynamic behaviors it can be found that
the structure has a dense mode distribution, the rst natural
frequency being 0.66 Hz, and about 100 mode shapes ranging
from 3.40 to 4.480 Hz, and the coupling effect of different modes
cannot be neglected.
Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the power spectrum curve of some typical
nodes. It is noted that in number ab, athe ath lay of the rigid
body model of the cooling tower and bthe bth node in section a
(Fig. 2). It can be found from the gures that the resonant response
component plays a comparatively important role in the total
uctuating response, and the contributions from the modes whose
frequencies are higher than 2.5 Hz to the response are negligible.

Table 1
Structural dimensions (unit: mm) and additional masses (unit: g) for aero-elastic model.
Structural member

Hyperbolic shell

Stiffening ring
Support column

Height

99.00
170.27
242.02
314.13
386.66
459.67
533.18
607.21
681.71
756.55
831.54
906.50
981.42
1069.50
1069.50

Radius

389.97
367.29
345.44
324.84
305.77
288.60
273.78
261.81
253.20
248.42
247.73
250.17
253.52
260.03
260.03
415.00

Circular sizes

Vertical sizes

Added mass  36

Thick

Width

Thick

Width

Mass

2.40
0.80
0.80
0.80
0.80
0.80
0.60
0.60
0.60
0.60
0.60
0.60
0.80
1.00

12.00
10.00
10.00
7.00
7.00
7.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
5.00

10.00
12.00
10.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
6.00
6.00
6.00
6.00
6.00
8.00
8.00

2.80
0.80
0.80
0.60
0.60
0.60
0.40
0.40
0.40
0.40
0.40
0.60
0.60

90
25
23
21
20
19
18
17
15
12
12
30

R 0.5
R 2.0

Fig. 2. Measured points of wind pressure distribution and vibration response.

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

35

Table 2
Design and measurement values of aero elastic model with mass system.
No.

Thin shell model

Mode shape

Beam model
Fre. of full-scale
Fre. of model

Measured

Mode shape

Designed fre.
Designed error

Fre.
Error ratio

4 circular 2 vertical waves

0.66
9.90

5 circular 2 vertical waves

0.69
10.35

10.45
0.1%

11.48
9.87%

3 circular 2 vertical waves

0.82
12.30

12.33
0.01%

13.43
8.95%

6 circular 2 vertical waves

0.891
12.60

13.36
5.60%

14.62
8.61%

2 circular 1 vertical waves

0.953
13.47

14.30
5.81%

16.14
12.81%

9.91
0.01%

0.8

mode1
mode2
mode3
mode4
mode5
mode6
mode7
mode8
mode9
mode10

0.7
0.6

Transfer function

Frequence (Hz)

4
3
2

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2

1
0

9.71
 2.00%

0.1
0.0

40

80
120
Number of mode

160

200

Fig. 3. Scattergram of natural frequency.

However, the contribution from coupled term between the background and resonant responses is uncertain.
In order to discuss the coupled effects and to verify the precision
of the CCM for computation of buffeting response with mode
coupling of a super-large cooling tower, the full-mode CQC method,
GLF method, IWL method, tri-component method and CCM are used

6
8
10 12 14
Circular frequence (Hz)

16

18

20

Fig. 4. Coupling diagram of frequency response function.

to calculate the RMS of uctuating responses of some typical nodes

on different sections, and the values in the last column are the
results from displacement measurement of an aero-elastic model in
the wind tunnel. TCM-1 is the tri-component method, which omits
the coupled effect of resonant modes, while TCM-2 is the
tri-component method, which considers the coupled effect of

36

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

0.016

8th Mode

Sf (mm2/Hz)

0.012

0.008

1st Mode
13th Mode

0.004

27th Mode
0.000

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

f (Hz)
Fig. 5. Power spectrum of displacement at node 31.

0.028
0.024

1st Mode

36

6th Mode

0.016

30

8th Mode

0.012

Sigma (mm)

Sf (mm2/Hz)

0.020

0.008
0.004
0.000

closer to the exact values than the latter, which means that the
resonant component plays a dominate role in the uctuant windinduced responses for super-large cooling towers. (3) The differences between the calculation results of TCM-1 and TCM-2 indicate
that the coupled effect between resonant modes should be taken
into account, since it caused a maximum error of 113% at point 57.
(4) The values obtained by CCM are very close to the exact results
and aero-elastic test values. The biggest difference from TCM-2 is
that CCM considers the coupled effect between background and
resonant responses, and coupled effects between the resonant
modes, which introduces a new thought for analyzing characteristics of wind-induced responses for super-large cooling towers.
In order to study the contribution of coupling component between
background and resonant responses, Fig. 7 shows the respective
component curves in the throat section of the cooling tower. It can
be seen that the resonant component is dominant in the uctuating
response, and the value and distribution of coupling component is
similar to those of the background component, which is not negligible
for wind-induced response of cooling towers.
Fig. 8 shows the uctuating ESWLs curves in the throat section
computed by the Unied LRC method and traditional tri-component
method, which aims at determining a specic load effect on the
throat displacement. The X-coordinate represents the node number,
and the Y-coordinate represents the uctuating ESWLs.

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

24
coupling component
background component
resonant component

18
12
6

5.0

f (Hz)

Fig. 6. Power spectrum of displacement at node 108.

Table 3
RMS of wind induced uctuant responses by different calculation methods
(unit: mm).

31
57
819
1127
1333

3.12
4.42
2.49
3.54
4.35

GLF

1.15
1.48
0.78
1.14
1.52

IWL LRC

2.28
2.97
2.15
2.96
3.12

1.62
2.15
0.57
1.51
1.89

TCM- TCM- CCM Aero1

2
elastic test
value
2.79
3.67
2.22
3.32
3.65

2.95
4.14
2.36
3.44
4.02

3.09
4.37
2.51
3.55
4.30

3.45
4.82
2.87
3.82
4.71

resonant modes. However, the two methods cannot consider the

coupled component between background and resonant responses. It
is noted that in node number ab, athe ath lay of the cooling
tower and bthe bth node in section a.
From Table 3, it can be found that: (1) Traditional calculation
methods, like GLF, IWL, and LRC cannot be used to analyze wind
induce responses for super-large cooling towers, because the
response values obtained by these methods deviate from the
precise values, with a maximum error of 68.9% at point 819.
(2) Comparing values by LRC with those by IWL, the former is

10

15
20
25
Node number

30

35

40

35

40

Fig. 7. Fluctuating components of response by CCM.

40

TCM-2
CCM

30

Fluctuating ESWLs (KN)

Node
Full-mode CQC
number (exact solution)

20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40

10

15

20

25

30

Node number
Fig. 8. Distribution curve of uctuating ESWLs of throat section.

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

Note that the distributions of ESWLs computed using different

methods are similar, but the errors of values obtained by different
methods should not be omitted. They are caused by the coupling
component between background and resonant modes.
The ESWLs of super-large cooling tower are calculated by
combining the surface wind pressures in the wind tunnel using
CCM. Fig. 9 exhibits a three-dimensional diagram of mean loads, and
background, resonant, and cross components, and uctuant and
total ESWLs causing throat displacement. It is noted that the x axis
indicates the toroidal angles, the y axis indicates vertical height, and
the z axis indicates the values of resulting ESWL components.

200
0
-200
-400
300
me

rid 200
ion
al h 100
eig
ht(
m

-200

100
0
()
-100
ngle
dal a
i
o
r
to

200

ESWL cross term(KN)

ESWL resonant(KN)

20
10
0
-10
-20
300
200
ridi
ona
l

me

hei 100
ght
(m)

0 -200

-100

100
)
gle(
al an

20
10
0
-10
-20
300
me
200
rid
ion
al h 100
eig
ht(
m

30

200

0
-20
-40
300

30

300

20

200

10
0
-10
-20
300
me
rid 200
ion
al h
100
eig
ht(
m)

0 -200

-100
idal
toro

100
le()
ang

200

200

20

id

toro

0 -200

100
0
le()
g
-100
al an
d
i
o
tor

40

200
me
rid
ion
al

total loads(KN)

ESWL fluctuent term(KN)

For total wind loads on super-large cooling towers, mean loads

plays a dominate role. They determine the distribution mode of
the surface wind loads, which is very important for calculating
multi-objective ESWLs for super-large cooling towers. The mean
and resonant components are selected as the basic vectors to
express equivalent static wind loads for multiple objectives. In
the meridional direction, background ESWLs have a peak at about
80 m height, while resonant and cross ESWLs have two peaks, and in
the toroidal section there are many irregular peaks aroused by the
resulting modes. The uctuant wind loads are very similar to
resonant ESWLs, which again illustrates that the resonant component

ESWL background(KN)

mean loads(KN)

400

37

100
hei
ght
(m)

0 -200

-100

idal
toro

100
le()
ang

200

100
0
-100
-200
300
200
me
rid
ion
al h 100
eig
ht(
m)

0 -200

-100
idal
toro

100
le()
ang

200

Fig. 9. Distribution curve of uctuating ESWLs of different components. (a) Mean term. (b) Background term. (c) Resonant term. (d) Cross term. (e) Fluctuant term. and
(f) Total ESWLs.

38

S.T. Ke et al. / J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 111 (2012) 3039

Table 4
Wind induced coefcient obtained by ESWL calculated by the method.
Bottom area

Middle area

Node number

Wind vibration
coefcient

Node number

Wind vibration
coefcient

Node number

Wind vibration
coefcient

11
112
124
31
312
324
51
512
524

1.42
1.56
1.45
1.48
1.61
1.55
1.57
1.69
1.63

81
812
824
91
912
924
101
1012
1024

1.89
2.28
2.53
2.36
2.28
2.00
2.60
3.15
2.86

121
1212
1224
131
1312
1324
141
1412
1424

1.67
1.98
2.21
2.07
2.08
1.88
2.11
2.35
2.09

Average value

1.55

2.44

has the largest contribution to uctuant ESWLs, and the cross term
between background and resonant components is obvious compared
to background ESWLs, which are not negligible for super-large
cooling towers.

5. Discussion on wind vibration coefcient

From the analysis of wind-induced vibration of different cooling tower heights, it is clear that it is unreasonable to adopt a
uniform wind vibration coefcient (see Eq. (25) for all sections of
a structure to calculate wind-induced response as in current
design codes (GB50009-2001, 2006). Table 4 gives the theoretical
wind vibration coefcients computed by the peak responses, and
then by comparison with the value of 1.6 xed by the Chinese
code, it can be seen that the dynamic wind-induced effects are
more and more obvious with increment of height, and the wind
vibration coefcient is mostly in the range from 1.4 to 3.0, which
are the values xed in codes. The value reached a maximum in the
throat area. Thus, the author suggests that the wind vibration be
considered in a subsection, and that the average values be shown
in the last row according to bottom, middle and top area.

bLi

Top area

gP f i
Pi
1
P ei
P ei

2.01

combining the wind pressures obtained by wind tunnel with

CCM,
the wind induced responses of super-large cooling towers can be
calculated.
(3) The distributions of ESWLs computed using TCM-2 and CCM
are similar, but the errors of values obtained by different
methods caused by the coupling component between background and resonant modes should not be omitted.
(4) For total wind loads on super-large cooling towers, mean
loads play a dominate role. This determines the distribution
mode of the surface wind loads, which is very important for
calculating multi-objective ESWLs for super-large cooling
towers. The mean component and resonant component are
selected as the basic vectors to express equivalent static wind
loads for multiple objectives.
(5) With increase in height, wind vibration coefcients rst increase,
and then decrease, and reach their maximum at the top section.
Thus, the traditional method of using single wind vibration
coefcient according to terrain roughness has a potential safety
problem in engineering practice. It is suggested that the wind
vibration coefcient should be treated seriously, and the wind
vibration coefcients considered in subsection is given.

31

where Pi Pei P is total load, mean load and uctuant load of node i.
Acknowledgments
6. Concluding remarks
The derivations of expressions for ESWLs on super-large cooling
towers have been given in this paper as a consistent coupled method
(CCM) to compensate the coupled term between background and
resonant responses. The aero-elastic model wind tunnel test for
simultaneous pressure and vibration measurement of a super-large
cooling tower is rstly carried out. Hence, combining wind tunnel
and CCM, the precision of CCM, distribution characteristics of ESWLs,
wind induced coefcient, and the cross term between background
and resonant component are discussed:
(1) The computation results indicate that the coupling effects
between resonant modes and cross term between background
and resonant component are signicant, and CCM is an
effective method for calculating ESWLs on super-large cooling
towers.
(2) Based on an equivalent beam-net design method, wind tunnel
tests of simultaneous pressure and vibration measurement for
super-large cooling towers are rst carried out. Then, by

This project is jointly supported by National Natural Science

Foundation (50978203, 51208254 and 51021140005) and Jiangsu
Province Natural Science Foundation (BK2012390) and Basic
research project of National Key Laboratory (SLDRCE08-C-02),
which are gratefully acknowledged.

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