Local Structure Response of High-Rise Empty Cylindrical Shell Towers to Wind-Induced Resonance Vibration

Abstract

High-rise towers are very sensitive to wind loads because of their high flexibility. Wind-induced resonance vibrations due to Karman vortex street have great impact on these structures, especially for the high empty cylindrical shell towers. In a petrochemical enterprise, a few local cracks were detected in some empty towers and the wind-induced resonance vibrations were considered to be responsible for that. In this paper, by employing software SW6 and ANSYS, the tower cracking cause was analyzed with emphasis on the simulation of local structure response for an empty tower under wind loads. It can be found that the stress level was quite severe at the head-skirt conjunctions which were consistent with those actual cracking positions.