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Proc. of Int. Conf. on Recent Trends in Transportation, Environmental and Civil Engineering 2011

Wind Analysis Of Tall Stack Like Structure

Jigar K. Sevalia1 , Dr. Atul K. Desai2
1

Ph. D. Scholar, Applied Mechanics Department, S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat, India. email:jigar_sevalia@yahoo.co.in
2
Head and Associate Professor, Applied Mechanics Department, S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat,
India. e-mail : akd@amd.svnit.ac.in
Case 1 The Chimney having conical portion up to 24 m from
bottom and then cylindrical portion for remaining 6
m.

Abstract - It has been undergone a considerable development

of industrial chimney in past few years in terms of structural
system as well as method of analysis. Also the height of
chimney has been increased for the better control of
environment pollution in populated areas. With the increase
in height, the wind forces have become predominant forces
while analyzing and designing such structures. Here in this
paper, an attempt has been made to analyse the industrial
steel chimney for the prevailing wind forces considering
chimney with and without guy ropes.
Index Terms: Chimney, Wind Force, Moment, Shell Stresses,
Dead Load

I. INTRODUCTION

Case 2 The same chimney as mentioned in Case 1 but

supported by 3 Numbers 25 mm Guy Cables.

The chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or

smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside
atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as
possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly,
drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the
stack, or chimney, effect. Scientific discoveries have lead to
the establishment of various types of industries. These
industries supply smoke and harmful gases in to the
atmosphere. Due to heavy industrialization and installation
of high capacity power plants together with the growing
consciousness about pollution has led to the construction
of tall chimneys. However, with the increment in height, the
wind actions on it become important as these produce very
high stresses. Although chimneys do not present as a great
hazard to life and limb as buildings with high human capacity,
damage to chimneys may result in shut down of plants and
industries. The chimney may be self supporting or guyed
chimney. In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyse
the industrial steel chimney with and without guy ropes for
prevailing wind conditions and forces.

Case 3 The same chimney as mentioned in Case 1 but

supported by 6 Numbers 25 mm Guy Cables at
equal angles.

II. ANALYSIS METHOD AND GEOMETRIC

CONFIGURATION
The wind force analysis of steel chimney is carried out
using SAP 2000 v 14.0.0. Five different models have been
developed for the steel chimney using shell elements to study
effects of seismic forces acting on it. The height of the chimney
is assumed to be 30 m. The diameter at the base is considered
1.3 m and at top is 0.36 m. The five different models of chimney
are as under;

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Proc. of Int. Conf. on Recent Trends in Transportation, Environmental and Civil Engineering 2011
IV. SIGN CONVENTION

Case 4 The Chimney having Conical Bottom up to bottom

10 m height and then cylindrical portion for
remaining 20 height.

Case 5 The Chimney having Conical Bottom up to bottom

10 m height and cylindrical portion for remaining
20 height with stiffener plates at junction of
conical bottom & cylindrical top.

Figure 1 Sign Convention for Shell Stresses (S11) & (S22)

Considering above mentioned cases of chimney and seismic

forces, the dynamic analysis of chimney was carried out using
software SAP 2000 v 14.0.0
III. LOADS CONSIDERED
Dead Load :
Self Weight of Chimney considering density of steel material
78.5 kN/m3
Wind Load
Basic Wind Speed = 44 m/sec

Figure 2 Sign Convention for Shell Forces

(M11) & (M22)

Risk Coefficient k1 = 1.07

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Topography Factor k3 = 1.0

Considering abovementioned cases of chimney and wind

forces, the structural analysis of chimney was carried out
using softwareSAP2000 v 14.0.0 and results aretabulated as
under where S11 and S22 are thedirect stresses acting along
axis 1 and 2 respectively and M11 and M22 are the direct
moments acting about axis 2 and 1 respectively.

Terrain Category = 2
Class of the Structure = B

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Proc. of Int. Conf. on Recent Trends in Transportation, Environmental and Civil Engineering 2011
TABLE 1 SHELL ELEMENT STRESSES

TABLE 2 SHELL ELEMENT MOMENTS

Graph 1 Direct Stress (S11) along Axis - 1

From above mentioned table 1 and graph 1, it can be seen

that out of the five cases of chimney, Case 2, Case -4 &
Case 5 is developing minimum shell stresses S11.
Graph 3 Direct Moment (M11) along Axis - 2

Graph 4 Direct Moment (M22) along Axis - 1

Graph 2 Direct Stress (S11) along Axis - 2

From above mentioned table 2, Graph 3 and Graph 4, it

can be seen that out of the five cases of chimney, Case 2 &
Case 3 is developing minimum shell moments i.e. M11 &
M22 under action of Dead Load combined with wind load.

From above mentioned table 1 and Graph 2, it can be seen

that out of the five cases of chimney, Case 2, Case -4 &
Case 5 is developing minimum shell stresses S22. Chimney
Case 3 is developing maximum stresses due to more number
of guy ropes as wind forces acting on guy ropes are adding
wind forces on chimney.

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Proc. of Int. Conf. on Recent Trends in Transportation, Environmental and Civil Engineering 2011
The Chimney with 6 Guy Cables as compared to Chimney
without Guy Cables reduces the deflection at the Top
considerably about by 78 %. Though Chimney with 3 guy
cables shows more deflection than the chimney with 6 guy
cables, the stresses in the walls of chimney are found very
less compared to the chimney with 6 guy cables as the more
number of guy cables are producing more wind forces on the
structure of chimney and hence more stresses. Also it is found
that Case 4 & Case 5 are more vulnerable to lateral
deflection due to wind load and exceeding the permissible
limits prescribed by IS 6533 (Part-2): 1989. Due to increase
flexibility in Case 4 & Case 5 of Chimney, the cross sectional
shape of the chimney in Case -4 & Case 5 is deforming largely
at the top.

TABLE 3 DEFLECTION AT TOP OF CHIMNEY (MM)

REFERENCES
1. B. C. Punmia, Ashok Kumar Jain and Arun Kumar Jain, Design
of Steel Structures, Laxmi Publications (P) Ltd., 2008.
2. Dayaratnam P., Design of Steel Structures, A. H. Wheeler &
Co. Ltd., 199.
3. IS: IS: 800-2007 Code for practice for general construction in
steel Second revision, Bureau of Indian standards, New Delhi.
4. IS: 875(Part-1) -1987, Code of Practice for design loads for
buildings & structures Dead Load, Bureau of Indian standards,
New Delhi.
5. IS: 875(Part-2) -1987, Code of Practice for design loads for
buildings & structures Live Load, Bureau of Indian standards,
New Delhi.
6. IS: 875(Part-3) -1987, Code of Practice for design loads for
buildings & structures Wind Load, Bureau of Indian standards,
New Delhi.
7. IS: 875(Part-5) -1987, Code of Practice for design loads for
buildings & structures Special Loads & Load Combinations,
Bureau of Indian standards, New Delhi.
8. IS: 6533(Part-1) -1987, Code of Practice for Design and
Construction of Steel Chimney Mechanical Aspect, Bureau of
Indian standards, New Delhi.
9. IS: 6533(Part-2) -1987, Code of Practice for Design and
Construction of Steel Chimney Structural Aspect, Bureau of
Indian standards, New Delhi.
10. Subramanian N., Design of Steel Structures, Adage Printers
(P) Ltd., 2008.

Graph 5 Deflections at Top of Chimney

Considering the deflection at the top of the chimney, it can

be seen from the table 3 and Graph 5 that Chimney Case 2 &
Chimney Case 3 deflect less under the Chimney combined
action of dead load and wind load. Although, the deflection
at the top of the Chimney in first three cases is within
permissible limit i.e. (h/200) = 150 mm. In chimney case 4
and chimney case 5, the deflection at the top of the chimney
is beyond permissible limit i.e. 150 mm.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned results one can conclude that
chimney with three guy ropes is performing well during the
action of wind compared to chimney with six numbers of guy
ropes as well as self supporting chimney. The Chimney with
3 Guy Cables as compared to Chimney without Guy Cables
reduces the deflection at the Top considerably about by
71 %.

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