A comparison study between seven procedures to predict vortex-induced vibrations on industrial chimneys

Structures like towers and industrial chimneys are quite vulnerable to the vortex shedding phenomenon, due to their slenderness and non-aerodynamic form. Furthermore, due to their low structural damping, these structures are also more likely to reach large displacement amplitudes, which is caused by the lock-in effect. Although these structures are considered simple from the structural and aerodynamic viewpoints, the study of crosswind vibrations in these structures is quite complicated, as it involves the interaction of complex topics of fluid and structural mechanics, turning a reliable determination of the structural response into one of the most complicated problems in Wind Engineering. Because of that, this study aimed to compare some methods for predicting the response due to the vortex shedding phenomenon using full scale data from industrial chimneys. The chosen methods, which are exposed in codes and standards like Eurocode, National Building Code of Canada and CICIND Model Code for Steel Chimneys, derive from the Ruscheweyh’s correlation length model and the Vickery & Basu’s spectral mathematical model. In addition, these methods are also compared to three proposals made for the Brazilian Wind Code. This study concludes that the methods based on the Vickery and Basu’s model work better for large displacement amplitudes.