WIND TUNNEL INVESTIGATION ON WIND LOAD CHARACTERISTICS FOR SUPER LARGE COOLING TOWERS

The simultaneous pressure-measured tests of the rigid model for a super large cooling tower were conducted in TJ-3 wind tunnel of Tongji University. In the process of external wind pressure measurement, by adjusting surface roughness and wind velocity, the actual aerodynamic characteristics of archetype cooling towers were successfully illustrated in the scale-reduced model with lower Reynolds number. By measuring tail flow velocity history of the cooling tower model using a hot-wire anemometer, the primary vortex-shedding frequency is proved to be reasonable. The distribution rule about sectional drag force coefficients along the tower height is analyzed based on probability correlation technique, and the fitting curves of wind pressure extreme value distributions along the circumferential direction are proposed. Through measurement of internal pressure distribution for the cooling tower model under various ventilation ratios of stuffing layers located at the bottom of the tower, the internal wind pressure extreme value distributions for commonly-used ventilation ratio are suggested by considering the correlation of aerodynamic pressures.