ABSTRACT
Wind effects on cooling tower shells are characterized by the presence of a large steady-state component and a significant fluctuating component due to air turbulence. According to Davenport’s concept (Davenport, 1961), the multivariate wind action can be subdivided into mean wind pressure, averaged over a period of 10 minutes, plus a random term. Similarly, structural response is static and dynamic. The latter cannot be treated as a deterministic one because of randomness of exciting action: since its turbulence, the wind pressure field over structural surface should be understood like a multidimensional stochastic process more or less correlated in time and space. So, the dynamic response is a stochastic process whose calculation depend on the complicated multiple random excitation of fluctuating wind. Therefore, the definition of equivalent static wind loads, useful in design purpose, is suitable.
