Effect of stiffening rings on buckling stability of R.C. hyperbolic cooling towers

Demand for efficient and economical reinforced concrete (R.C.) hyperbolic cooling towers has driven engineers toward designing tall and thin-shell towers with a considerable high slenderness aspect ratio. This construction type is susceptible to buckling instability. To increase the R.C. hyperbolic cooling towers' structural stability while keeping the costs down, engineers could add stiffening rings. To achieve maximum buckling stability, important design parameters such as the number, dimension, and location of stiffening rings must be considered. Currently, however, there is a lack of information on these parameters. Using a series of numerical analyses, this paper defines the above parameters for maximizing the buckling stability of cooling towers and proposes a method for obtaining these parameters for any given cooling tower. Using these parameters, this paper also investigates the effect of stiffening rings on the buckling stability of R.C. cooling towers.