Tragverhalten von hohen Stahlbetontürmen für Aufwindkraftwerke

Load bearing of high rise tubes for solar updraft towers

Solar updraft power plants are solar thermal power plants for producing renewable electric energy from direct and indirect solar radiation. These power plants demand for high rise tower tubes with heights up to 1000 m and more, which are planned as cantilevering tubes out of structural concrete. These tower tubes are provided with several stiffeners such as spoke wheels distributed over the height to keep the membrane forces due to wind at a minimum. The load bearing of these multi-stiffened towers consists of a cantilever-like and a shell-like in the segments between two stiffeners. The ultimate loads of several 1000 m high tower tubes were investigated by geometrical and physical non-linear FEM calculations. Cracking of the concrete has a reasonable impact on the ultimate limit state and results together with the flank suction in a typical sickle-like ovalling between the luv and the flank suction. The ultimate limit state of these towers is governed by the shell-like behavior in the sickle-like deformation with bending and longitudinal force. Additional non-linear FEM calculations of the topmost segment of the tower show the same deformation and failure mechanism.