Resumen de Behaviour of R/C Cooling Tower Shell Under Uneven Foundation Settlement
The stress distributions and the ultimate strength of a reinforced concrete (R/C) cooling tower shell were investigated under the conditions of uneven settlement of column supports. In numerical analyses, the finite element method was adopted. R/C cooling tower shell and columns were modeled by solid elements and steel sheet elements representing the reinforcements. The behaviour of two types of supporting systems, that were 32 V column and 32 vertical column systems, was investigated and was compared under the loading condition of the self weight. From the numerical analysis, the stress concentration was arisen near the connections between the unsettled column and the lintel and the ultimate strength was reduced by uneven settlements.
