Investigations of Wind Loads on a New Type of Self-Supporting Four Pipe Steel Chimney

To reveal the wind load resistance characteristics of chimneys, wind tunnel testing and theoretical analysis were used to investigate the wind loads on a new type of self-supporting four-pipe steel chimney of 240 m height. With a large-scale rigid physical model, surface pressure measurement in a simulated atmospheric boundary layer flow field was made in the 8 m×6 m wind tunnel industrial test section at the China Aerodynamic Research and Development Center (CARDC). The wind pressure distributions and the body coefficients of the structure were obtained, and the along-wind equivalent wind load and the wind-induced vibration coefficients were calculated by the conventional inertial wind loading method in the code of China and the gust loading factor method in the code of other countries. The results show that the pressure coefficient distribution on each section of pipes is approximately similar, but the interference effect between pipes is remarkable. The integral body coefficient reach a maximum value of 0.633 at the wind direction angle 60°. The response of the along-wind fluctuating equivalent wind load is close to that of the mean wind load.