Theoretical study of the dynamic response of a chimney to earthquake and wind

Analytical studies of the elastic and inelastic responses of a chimney to an earthquake are performed. The chimney studied is at the steam generating plant at Paradise, Kentucky of Tennessee Valley Authority. The report describes the geometry and the material property of the chimney at a TVA Power Plant. An existing computer program SAP IV is employed to study the elastic response of the chimney. Both time history and response spectrum analyses are employed to obtain the displacements and forces at various heights of the chimney. A simple method is developed to generate the ground response spectrum as the input data for the response spectrum analysis. In the description of the inelastic response of a chimney to an earthquake, the plastic bending analysis of a chimney is described first. By using the initial strain concept to treat the effects of plastic strains, a governing linear matrix equation is established. Based on the equations and the procedure developed, the behavior of a chimney subjected to cyclic loading is then analyzed. A general equation for the relationship between moment and curvature is derived. The plastic strain distributions in the element at any stage are found through this relationship. Finally, the inelastic responsemore » of the chimney is solved by using a step-by-step integration method coupled with the governing equations and the moment curvature relationship. A computer program is developed to predict the inelastic dynamic behavior of the chimney.« less