Dynamic analysis of industrial chimneys considering soil-structure interaction

Industrial steel chimneys are an essential part of factories, refineries, power generation facilities, and similar structures. These chimneys are designed and constructed to handle the release of waste and harmful gases into the atmosphere. It is desirable for these structures to serve for many years. The Chimney-Soil interaction is an important topic for reliable design of chimney structures. These structures, which require advanced engineering knowledge and experience in their design, must consider many parameters during construction. In this study, the dynamic responses of industrial tower-type chimney structures with different soil characteristics was investigated in terms of soil-structure interaction. Soil models with different soil properties from S1, S2, S3, and S4 types were used to create soil effects. The soil models were prepared with the same dimensions and special boundaries were defined. Dynamic analyses of steel chimney-type structures with assumed heights of 30, 50, and 60 meters were performed on the designated soils. The results were evaluated using the nonlinear elasto-plastic material model of structural steel. Finite element analyses were performed using the SOLID185 finite element type and the ANSYS WORKBENCH software for dynamic analyses. The relevant parameters of the tower-type structure modeled with different soils and steel models were evaluated when exposed to seismic acceleration resulting from the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake. In the evaluation phase, the maximum top displacement, stress values at bottom surface of the structure were obtained through graphical representations by performing time-domain analysis of the earthquake effect on the structure. It was observed that the highest top displacement values occurring at different times depending on the soil were higher for S4 soil than for S1 soil when the earthquake acceleration was applied to the structure modelled with different soils and steel models. Similar results were found for shear and Von-Mises stresses. It was concluded that the soil-structure interaction significantly affects the design of tower-type structures.