Condition Assessment of Induced Draught Cooling Towers Located In Different Climatic Regions of India

Abstract

Induced Draft Cooling Towers (IDCT) are an important industrial structures, which removes the heat absorbed in the circulating cooling water systems of thermal power plants. The cooling tower in general comprises of RCC members’ viz. Column, Beam, Slab, Wall, Louvers, Fanstack Shell etc. The process of operation is itself an important factor which affects the durability of members of IDCTs, due to which the RCC members of IDCT are subjected to varying exposure condition, some members are continuous under water, some are partially submerged, some have alternate drying & wetting and some are completely dry. Due to different exposure conditions of RCC members of these structures generally shows very contrasting states of distress i.e. varying from apparently un-distressed to highly distressed state. Apart from process of operation of IDCTs, the other important factors that affect the durability of these RCC structures are presence of Chloride in water being cooled & Chloride in concrete present during the construction and carbonation due to aging of concrete. The RCC structures were assessed by various Non-Destructive evaluation techniques and deterioration mechanisms were established. The present paper highlights the findings of condition assessment studies of selected IDCTs located in different climatic regions of India.