State-of-the-Art of Structural Design of Cooling and Solar Updraft Towers

In future solar updraft towers might be the largest shell structures in technology. Because of their size they are extremely exposed to wind action. Many structural phenomena, like forced vibrations, static and dynamic instabilities, or damage-induced failure, will influence their safety and reliability. It makes sense to adopt the know-how from design and construction of natural draft cooling towers and transfer it to towers of solar updraft power plants. Thus the present paper will report on typical structural design efforts for concrete shells of extreme size, namely the shape optimization of the meridian, the construction of the turbine-inlets, the application of high- performance concrete, and on design concepts to increase the shells' durability.