AEP Experience With Pultruded Polyester Fiberglass Structure For Cooling Towers

摘要

There are a total of 15 hyperbolic and 30 mechanical draft cooling towers on the AEP system. These towers utilize a cross-flow or counter-flow thermal transfer design, and almost all of the cross-flow towers are treated wood structures.AEP replaced four cross-flow mechanical draft towers during the period of 2008 through May 2010, and a counter-flow mechanical draft tower was built for a new unit in 2009. All five of these new towers usedpolyester fiberglass structure from the same pultruder and were designed and constructed by a single cooling tower company. These five towers are the first fiberglass structure cooling towers on the AEP system which have been placed in-service.Failed or cracked fiberglass columns were found in four towers and surface blisters were noticed in two of the new towers after 2 to 18 months of operation. This paper will summarize where the failures, cracks and blisters occurred, along with steps AEP is following up on to minimize cracks and blisters in future fiberglass cooling towers.