• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.479-496
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• 2008

In this paper, computer simulation of wind flow around a single cooling tower with louver support at the base in the KAZERUN power station in south part of IRAN is presented as a case study. ANSYS FLOTRAN, an unstructured finite element incompressible flow solver, is used for numerical investigation of wind induced pressure load on a single cooling tower. Since the effects of the wind ribs on external surface of the cooling tower shell which plays important role in formation of turbulent flow field, an innovative relation is introduced for modeling the effects of wind ribs on computation of wind pressure on cooling tower's shell. The introduced relation which follows the concept of equivalent sand roughness for the wall function is used in conjunction with two equations ${\kappa}-{\varepsilon}$ turbulent model. In this work, the effects of variation in the height/spacing ratio of external wind ribs are numerically investigated. Conclusions are made by comparison between computed pressure loads on external surface of cooling tower and the VGB (German guideline for cooling tower design) suggestions.