The 200 m Niederaussem tower - design and static approach

摘要

In the years 1999 to 2001 a new natural draft cooling tower has been built at the RWE power station at Niederaussem, with 200 m the highest cooling tower world-wide. For many reasons, such structures can not be designed merely as an enlargement of smaller ones, on the contrary, it is full of innovative new design elements. The present article starts with a short overview over the cooling tower and a brief description of the new cooling tower generation as well as the conceptual shape optimization concept. Special attention is focused on the structural analysis of the tower, especially the numerical modeling of the non-axisymmetric wind loading, the non-axisymmetric soil characteristics and the prestressing of the upper rim. Additionally, the numerical solution method as well as the physically and geometrically nonlinear verification procedure is detailed. After a short explanation of the new high performance concrete for the shell and the fill construction, further attention is taken to the construction process.