12-11: Structural Integrity of Hyperbolic Cooling Tower with Imperfections in

Due to the large sizes of the concrete hyperbolic cooling towers and the difficulties encountered during construction, it is not always possible to maintain the dimensional accuracy of the towers. Imperfections in the intended geometry and verticality do occur which can have an impact on the stresses in the thin concrete shell structure. Using an existing hyperbolic cooling tower as an example and some possible imperfection scenarios of the structure, the paper will provide a parametric study on when certain imperfections become critical for the safety of the cooling tower when subjected to wind.