Abstract
The result of the previous work leads to the idea that the inner area of the hyperbolic shell generator should be minimized for the cooling tower with higher first natural frequency. In this study the inner area of the hyperbolic shell generator was graphically established under varying height of the throat and angle of the base lintel. From the graph, several shell geometries were selected and analysed in the aspect of the natural frequency. Three representative towers reinforced differently due to different first natural frequencies were analysed non-linearly and evaluated using a damage indicator based on the change of natural frequencies. The results demonstrated that the damage behaviour of the tower reinforced higher due to a lower first natural frequency was not necessarily advantageous than the others.