508 International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 508-511

Wind and Earthquake Analysis of Tall RC Chimneys

K. R. C. Reddy
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, KITS Ramtek-441106, Dist. Nagpur, (M.S.)
E-mail: krcreddy22@rediffmail.com
O. R. Jaiswal
Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics, VNIT Nagpur (M.S.)
P. N. Godbole
Emeritus Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics, VNIT Nagpur (M.S.)

ABSTRACT: Chimneys are normally designed for critical loads produced by earthquake or wind. It is necessary to
analyse the dynamic response of chimney due to influence of earthquake and wind loads. Chimney being tall and
flexible structure, it is expected that wind loads will be more critical than earthquake loads. In this paper, two RC
chimneys are analysed for earthquake and wind loads. Earthquake analysis is done as per IS 1893 (Part 4): 20052 and
wind analysis is performed as per IS 4998 (Part 1): 19921. This paper presents the comparison of wind loads with that of
earthquake loads to decide the most critical loads for the design of the chimney shell. The design wind load is obtained
by combination of along and across-wind response of the chimney. The combination is performed as per the procedure
given in ACI 307-98 code3. It is seen that, the earthquake forces acting on the chimney in zone V are closely matching
with wind loads in a zone whose basic wind speed is 44 m/s.

KEYWORDS: RC chimneys, earthquake loads, wind loads, combined design loads, zone factor.

INTRODUCTION WIND ANALYSIS

Tall RC chimneys are commonly used to discharge Wind load on structures, depends on gustiness of wind,
pollutants at higher elevation. The enforcement of stricter topography of terrain and also on the interaction of
air-pollution control standards has led to the construction of wind with structures. Dynamic wind loads induces
increasingly tall RC chimneys worldwide. Further due to the along-wind loads and across-wind loads on tall
availability of advanced construction materials chimney chimneys. Here the random response method is used
shell is being made with thinner wall. As a result, chimneys for the analysis as given in IS 4998:1992.
have become more slender and sensitive to wind-induced
vibrations. The cross-section of the chimney is generally Along-wind analysis
hollow circular, from aerodynamic considerations, and
tapered, from considerations of structural economy and The along wind load per unit height at any height z on
aesthetics. The chimney is subject to gust buffeting in the a chimney is given by
along-wind direction due to drag forces, and also to possible
vortex shedding in the across-wind direction. In the typical Fz = Fzm + Fzf (1)
case of slender, tapered RC chimneys, it is the along-wind
response which generally predominates and governs the
design. Where, Fzm is the wind load in N/m height due to
HMW at height z and Fzf is the wind load in N /m
Tall reinforced concrete (RC) chimneys form an important height due to the fluctuating component of wind at
component of major industries and power plants. Damage height z.
to chimney due to wind or earthquake load may lead to shut
down of power plants and important industries. However, if
chimney is located in higher seismic zone and lower wind Fzm = Pz C D d z (2)
speed zone, then, earthquake forces may become
comparable, if not more, than the wind loads.
In fact, the chimney is designed for the combined effect of h
along-wind and across-wind loads. In the literature, various F zf = 3 .( G 1) / h 2 .( z / h ) F zm . z .d z (3)
approaches to combine along-wind and across-wind loads
0
are mentioned. In this paper a method given by ACI 307
code is being used to obtain the combined design loads. where G is the gust factor, h is the height of the
Earlier many researchers4,6,7 have shown the results of chimney
earthquake analysis using the simplified procedures given in
the codes. The objective of this paper is to analyze the
chimneys for design wind loads and earthquake loads and
compare them to decide the most critical loads for the design
G = 1+ g f r {B + S E } (4)
of chimney shell.

#020410311 Copyright 2011 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved

 Wind and Earthquake Analysis of Tall Rc Chimneys 509

Across-wind analysis where, CT is the coefficient depending upon the

The across-wind response of chimney occurs mainly due to slenderness ratio of the structure, Wt is the total weight
vortex shedding and velocity dependent forces. Across- of the structure including weight of lining and contents
wind analysis of chimney is required only if the critical wind above the base, h is the height of structure above the
speeds for any mode of oscillation is less than the mean base, E s is the modulus of elasticity of material of the
design wind speed. The critical wind speed Vcri, for vortex structural shell, A is the area of cross-section at the
shedding in the ith mode of vibration is given by base of the structural shell.
For circular sections, A = 2 r t, where r is the mean
fi d radius of structural shell and t its thickness, and g is the
Vcri = (5) acceleration due to gravity. The damping factor
Sn considered for the reinforced concrete material is 3
percent of critical value for design basis earthquake. In
The sectional shear force ( Fz 0i ) and the bending moment this case, the material damping factor of 0.048 is
considered for determining Sa/g. Using the period T,
( M z 0i ) at any height z0, for the ith mode of vibration is given
the horizontal seismic coefficient Ah shall be obtained
by from the spectrum given in IS 1983 (Part 1). The
design horizontal seismic coefficient for Ah design
h
basis earthquake shall be determined by the following
Fz0i = 4 2 f i oi m z zi dz
2 expression
(6)
z0

(Z 2 )(S a g )
h
Ah =
M z0i = 4 f i oi m z zi ( z z 0 ) dz (R I )
(11)
2 2
(7)
z0

where, Z is the zone factor This is in accordance with

Calculation of across wind load is made by first calculating Table 2 of IS 1893 (Part 1), I is the importance factor,
the peak tip deflection for the specified mode of vibration. R is the response reduction factor.
For Chimney with Little or No Taper {d(h)/d(0) > 0.5}, the The ratio (R/I) shall not be less than1.0. Sa/g is the
model response, at a critical wind speed shall be calculated spectral acceleration coefficient in accordance with IS
by 1893 (Part 1). The horizontal earthquake force shall be
assumed to act alone in one lateral direction at a time.
The effects due to vertical component of earthquakes
1.25C L d hi a d { (L ) / 2(I + 2)} are generally small and can be ignored. The effect of
2
earthquake and maximum wind on the structure shall
2Sn2 mei not be considered simultaneously.
oi = 1
1 h 2 2
( k a a d / m ei )
1 Design shear force and moment
zi dz
2 2
The simplified method can be used for ordinary stack-
h 0 like structures. The design shear force, V, and design
bending moment, M, for such structures at a distance x
(8) from the top, shall be calculated by the following
where, mei = equivalent mass per unit length in kg/m in the formulae,

ith mode of vibration. V = C v . Ah .Wt .Dv (12)

h h
mei = m z zi dz
2 2
zi dz (9) M = Ah .Wt .h.Dm (13)
0 0

where, Cv is the coefficient of shear force depending

on slenderness ratio k, Ah is the design horizontal
EARTHQUAKE ANALYSIS seismic coefficient, Wt is the total weight of structure
The earthquake loads are obtained as per IS 1893 (part 4):
including weight of lining and contents above the base,
2005. Time period of vibration, T of chimneys when fixed at
h is the height of centre of gravity of structure above
base is given by,
base, and
Wt .h Dv, Dm are the distribution factors for shear and
T = CT (10) moment respectively at a distance x from the top of
E 2. A.g chimney. The expressions for these distributions for
moment and shear along the height are given in Table
11 of code for use in computer programme.

International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 508-511
 510 K. R. C. Reddy, O. R. Jaiswal, P. N. Godbole

EXAMPLE CHIMNEYS
Two chimneys are considered for the analysis purpose. The
217 m chimney as shown in Figure 1(a) consists of four
tapers and twenty one platforms. The platform details are
also shown in Figure 1(a). Where as the 220 m chimney as
shown in Figure 1(b) is of uniform taper whose outer
diameter and shell thickness at the top and bottom are
shown.

Modeling
For the analysis purpose Chimneys are modeled as vertical
cantilever fixed at the base having varying cross sections
using beam element (NKTP 12) of NISA (EMRC, 1998).
Chimneys are divided into elements of one meter length
along its height. The mass of each section is calculated by
averaging the mass of above and below it. Chimney is
idealized as mdf system with mass lumped at various levels.
Horizontal motion is considered. Natural frequency and
mode shapes required for the analysis are obtained from this
finite element model of chimney.

Material
The material used for chimney shell is M25 grade concrete
whose mass density () considered as 2.5 t/m3, weight (a) 217 m chimney
density as 25 KN / m3, Youngs modulus (E) as 3.2 x 107
kN/m2 and structural damping as a fraction of critical
damping () is considered as 0.016. Free vibration
characteristics such as natural frequency and time periods
are obtained from the dynamic analysis of chimneys and
shown in Table 1. Then critical wind speeds and mean
design wind speeds are calculated and presented in Table 2.

Table 1: Free vibration characteristics of chimneys

Chim. Natural Frequency Time period

Ht. (Hz) (sec.)
(m) 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
mode mode mode mode mode mode
217 0.33 1.39 3.44 2.98 0.72 0.29
220 0.44 1.86 4.53 2.23 0.53 0.22

The critical wind velocity and the design wind velocity are
calculated by taking Vb = 44 m/s , k1 = 1.07 , k3 = 1.00, sn =
0.2 and d = average diameter over the top 1/3 height of
chimney

Table 2: Critical wind speeds (Vcri.=fd/sn)

and mean design wind speed(Vzbar) (b) 220 m chimney
Chi d Critical Wind Velocity, Vzbar Figure 1: Example chimneys
ht. (m) Vcri =fd/sn (m/s) =Vbk1k2b
(m) 1st 2nd 3rd ark3
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
mode mode mode m/s
The numeric results of along- and across-wind analysis
217 14.7 24.7 102.5 253.9 46.35 and earthquake analysis are obtained as per the
220 15.6 34.9 145.5 354.6 46.45 procedure given above for the both the chimneys.

International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 508-511
 Wind and Earthquake Analysis of Tall Rc Chimneys 511

Along-wind analysis
The along-wind analysis of chimney is performed using On studying the results presented in the above tables, it
Random Response Method of IS: 4998 (Part-1)1992. shows that as the zone factor increases the values of
Maximum shear force and bending moment for both the shear force and bending moment increases. It is
chimneys have been calculated with various options using mentioned that the response reduction factor of 3.0 is
random response method and the results are given in Table sufficient for estimating the earthquake loads but the
3. results becoming double if the R equal to 1.5. The
results obtained with R equal to 1.5 and with zone
Across-wind analysis factor of 0.36 are almost matching with that of the
In across-wind analysis, those modes for which critical wind wind loads.
speed less than mean design wind speed are to be
considered. It is fond that the critical wind speed of only CONCLUSIONS
first mode is less than the mean design wind speed, hence On comparison of the wind loads with that of the
only the first mode has been considered in the across-wind earthquake loads, the following conclusions are drown,
analysis. Maximum shear force and bending moment The wind loads are always governing the design of
computed by random response method of IS: 4998 and the chimney shell.
results are presented in Table 3. In the most critical earthquake zone with zone
factor of 0.36 and response reduction factor of 1.5,
Table 3: Results of wind analysis the earthquake response is almost matching with
Chimney SF
that of wind response but never been crossing the
Height kN
(m) Along Across Combined wind response.
217 1512 2239 2701 For the design of the chimney shell, the combined
220 3410 5654 6654 design wind loads are used.
Chimney BM
Height kNm REFERENCES
(m) Along Across Combined
217 196822 348462 400205 [1] ACI 307:1998,Standard practice for design and
220 454434 832453 948413 construction of RC chimneys(ACI 307-98) and
commentary(ACI 307R-98),American Concrete
Earthquake analysis Institute, Detroit
To obtain the earthquake loads, the time period is calculated
[2] IS 4998(part-1):1992, Criteria for Design of
using the Equation 10. Knowing the time period of chimneys
the horizontal seismic coefficients are calculated as per the Reinforced Concrete Chimneys, 2nd revision,
Equation 11. Then the design shear force and bending
Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi.
moments are evaluated by Equations 12 and 13 respectively.
The results are obtained for different response reduction [3] IS 1893 (Part 4):2005, Criteria for earthquake
factors with R equal to 3.0 and 1.5 and also various values of
resistant design of structures, Bureau of Indian
zone factors. The design shear force and the bending
moment of 217 m chimney are presented in Table 4 and that Standards, New Delhi.
of 220 m chimney is given in Table 5.
[4] Jain, S.K., Singh, B.P., Guptha, B.K., 1990, I.S.
Table 4: Earthquake analysis results of 217 m chimney code provisions for seismic design of tall
Sr. Zone Zone R=3.0 R=1.5
chimneys, International of structures, Vol. 10,
no. No. factor SF BM SF BM
kN kNm kN kNm No. 2, pp 103-111
1 II 0.10 454 74222 909 148443 [5] Jaiswal, O.R., Srinivas, V., 2005, Effect of tuned
2 III 0.16 727 118754 1456 237509
3 IV 0.24 1091 178131 2184 356263 mass damper on across-wind response of tall RC
4 V 0.36 1637 267198 3276 356264 Chimneys, Journal of Wind & Engineering, India,
Table 5: Earthquake analysis results220 m chimney
Sr. Zone Zone R=3.0 R=1.5 vol.2, No.1, pp.9-21
no. No. factor SF BM SF BM [6] Shivaji, M., Raju, V.S.N., Dynamic analysis of
kN kNm kN kNm
1 II 0.10 522 87238 1045 174476 R.C.C. chimneys
2 III 0.16 836 139581 1672 279162
3 IV 0.24 1254 209371 2508 418743
4 V 0.36 1881 314057 3762 628115

International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 508-511