International Journal of Research in Civil Engineering, Architecture & Design

Volume 1, Issue 2, October-December, 2013, pp. 20-23, © IASTER 2013

www.iaster.com, ISSN Online: 2347-2855, Print: 2347-8284

Modal Analysis of R.C.C Chimney

*
Yoganantham.C , Helen Santhi.M**
*
P.G Student, **Professor
Division of Structural Engineering, VIT University, Chennai Campus, India

ABSTRACT

Tall RCC chimneys are commonly used in major industries and power plants. The analysis and
design of chimneys are normally governed by wind or earthquake load. In this paper modal
analysis of a RCC chimney in a cement factory is carried out using the FEM software package
ANSYS. The height of the chimney is taken as 60 m. The outer diameter of the chimney at top and
bottom are 3.052 m and 5.73 m, respectively. The thickness at top and bottom are taken as 160 mm
and 330 mm, respectively. M25 grade of concrete is used in the analysis. The effects of changes in
the dimensions of the chimney on the modal parameters such as fundamental frequency,
Displacement etc. are evaluated.

Keywords:- Earthquake loads, Mode shape, Natural frequency, RC chimneys, Wind loads.

1. INTRODUCTION

Chimneys are generally provided in the industries to discharge pollutants into the atmosphere at
certain heights and velocities so that the pollutants do not harm the environment. The heights of
the chimneys are increased to lessen the atmospheric pollution. The changes in the dimensions
may have the influence on the dynamic properties of chimneys.

The previous research carried out in the dynamic analysis of chimneys is briefly presented here.
Arkady [1] described the concrete chimney analysis using FE models and ANSYS-Based CAD.
Modal characteristics of the chimney are used for model comparison. Victor [2] explained the
simplified method for seismic analysis and design of industrial chimneys that allows an accurate
estimation of the fundamental period of vibration, lateral displacements, shear forces and bending
moments through a set of equations, with errors obtained below 10% for all cases studied. Shivaji
and Raju [3] investigated a R.C.C Chimney of height 220 m for free vibration and response
spectrum analysis using MSC/NASTRAN. Raja Murugadoss [4] studied the free vibration of
laminated composite shells. The effects of various constitutive material properties, end conditions,
fiber orientations, and other geometric properties like radius, thickness, height, neck height and
other geometric parameters are considered. Priyadharshini and Jeyanthi [5] have made an attempt
to evaluate the design of steel chimneys using different codes of practice viz IS 6533 (part 2):
1989, BS 4076 : 1989 for a typical steel chimney.

In the present work an attempt has been made to find the influence of various geometric
parameters such as height, diameter and thickness on the dynamic response of the structure i.e.,
displacement and fundamental frequency.

2. MODELING OF RCC CHIMNEY

The chimney in a cement industry is modeled as a 3-D member and the material is assumed to be
elastic and isotropic. The modeling and meshing of the RCC chimney in ANSYS is shown in Fig.
1 and 2, respectively.

20
International Journal of Research in Civil Engineering, Architecture & Design (O) 2347-2855
ISSN
Volume-1, Issue-2, October-December, 2013, www.iaster.com (P) 2347-8284

The heignt of the chimney (H) is considered as 60 m. The outer diameter (D) and thickness (T) of
the chimney at bottom are taken as 5.73 m and 0.33 m, respectively. The outer diameter (d) and
thickness (t) of the chimney at top are taken as 3.052 m and 0.152 m, respectively. The materials
used in the analysis are M25 grade concrete & Fe415 grade steel.

Fig. 1. R.C.C Chimney model in ANSYS Fig. 2. Meshing of R.C.C Chimney

3. ANALYSIS, RESULTS & DISCUSSION

3.1. Modal analysis

The modal analysis is performed for the chimney to get the dynamic characteristics such as
frequencies and mode shapes. The fundamental frequency of the chimney is observed as 1.15 Hz
and the top displacement is 0.0037m. Fig. 3 to 5 shows the first three mode shapes of the chimney.

First mode shape Second mode shape Third mode shape

Fig. 3. Mode shapes of chimney

3.2. Geometric parameters

Some of the geometric parameters that have influence on dynamic response such as H/D, d/D, t/T
and D/T are considered in the analysis.
The geometric parameters for the chimney under study are,
H/D ratio = 11.11
d/D ratio = 0.537
t/T ratio = 0.46
D/T ratio = 16.36

21
International Journal of Research in Civil Engineering, Architecture & Design (O) 2347-2855
ISSN
Volume-1, Issue-2, October-December, 2013, www.iaster.com (P) 2347-8284

In this analysis, the different ranges of above geometric parameters are taken for discussion. The
H/D ratio ranges from 10 to 20, d/D from 0.2 to 0.8, t/T from 0.2 to 1.0 and D/T from 15 to 24.

3.3. Influence of geometric parameters on frequency

The fundamental frequency of the chimney for different ranges of geometric parameters is found
and the results are shown in Fig. 4 to 7. Similar kind of behavior is observed for the ratios of H/D,
t/T and d/D i.e when the ratio increases the frequency decreases. In the case of D/T ratio, the
frequency increases with D/T ratio.

Fig. 4. Fundamental frequency for various H/D ratio Fig. 5. Fundamental frequency for various D/T ratio

Fig. 6. Fundamental frequency for various t/T ratio Fig. 7. Fundamental frequency for various d/D ratio

3.4. Influence of geometric parameters on displacement

The displacement of the chimney is measured by varying the different geometric parameter ratios
and the results are plotted in Fig. 8 to 11. The behavior of the chimney in terms of displacement is
same for all the geometric parameters. It is observed that the displacement decreases when the
H/D, t/T, d/D and D/T ratio increases.

Fig. 8. Displacement for various H/D ratio Fig. 9. Displacement for various D/T ratio.

22
International Journal of Research in Civil Engineering, Architecture & Design (O) 2347-2855
ISSN
Volume-1, Issue-2, October-December, 2013, www.iaster.com (P) 2347-8284

Fig. 10. Displacement for various t/T ratio Fig. 11. Displacement for various d/D ratio

4. CONCLUSION

From the modal analysis of concrete chimney, the following conclusions are drawn.

The geometric parameter D/T ratio has positive response on fundamental frequency of the
chimney.
The displacement of the chimney is found to decrease with the increase in all geometric
parameter ratios.
When considering the importance of both frequency and displacement, the ratio D/T has
more positive influence than other parameter ratios.
The D/T ratio upto 22 may be the most deciding parameter in the modal analysis.

REFERENCES

[1] A. Arkady . Livshits , “Concrete Chimney Analysis and Design: FE models and ANSYS-
based CAD”, Israel Electric Crop. Ltd, Haifa, Israel, 2000.

[2] Victor I Fernandez Davila, “Simplified Method for Seismic Analysis of Industrial
chimneys”, ACI Structural Journal, Vol.120, No.3, 2005, pp.347-355.

[3] M. Shivaji and V.S.N.Raju,“Dynamic Analysis of R.C.C Chimneys”, A.P.S.E Board,

Hyderabad, India.

[4] J. Raja Murugadoss, “Free Vibration Analysis of Composite shells”, International

conference on Advances in concrete and construction, ICACC-2008, pp.1061-1070.

[5] S. Priyadharshini and J. Jeyanthi, “Design of steel chimneys”, International conference on

Innovations in Building Materials, Structural Designs and Construction Practices, 2008,
pp.927-931.

[6] Is 4998(Part 1):1992, Criteria for Design of Reinforced Concrete Chimneys.

[7] IS 1893(part 4), Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures.

[8] ACI 307-98, Design and Construction of Reinforced Concrete Chimneys.

23