This VGB-Standard VGB-S-610, “Structural Design of Cooling Towers” constitutes the joint basis – together with VGB-R 135e, “Planning of Cooling Towers”, and VGB-R 612e, “Protection Measures on Reinforced Concrete Cooling Towers and Chimneys against Operational and Environmental Impacts” – for the civil engineering-related planning including design, construction and approval as well as for the construction of cooling tower facilities built from reinforced concrete. It is based on more than 50 years of experience in the construction of cooling towers gained by plant and structural design engineers, by construction companies, accredited review engineers and owners. In addition, Guideline VGB-R 613e, “Code of Practice for Life Cycle Management of Reinforced Concrete Cooling Towers at Power Plants”, presents notes on in-process inspection and maintenance.
The VGB-Standard was thoroughly revised and restructured compared with the last edition, VGB-R 610 of 2010, chiefly in order to increase its application and acceptance by potential users outside Germany. To this end its structure was modified to make it similar to the European standards by dividing into a generally valid and internationally oriented base part and a specific national, i.e., German part. Different from the European standards, however, no national annex was created. Instead, for improved readability a unified document was produced comprising the generally applicable base part and the location-specific part (on a grey background) with German rules. For application outside Germany it is necessary to use the respective national rules and specifications instead of the German rules.
New findings from continued engineering studies and feedback from practice have also necessitated modifications. In particular, hybrid cooling towers and multi-cell cooling towers as now common cooling tower design variants have been included, in addition to natural draught cooling towers.
This VGB-Standard does not cover contractual arrangements with responsibilities for organisational workflows. These are to be defined separately by the contracting parties. Users are requested to inform the VGB Office of their experience with the application of this VGB-Standard and any sources of possible misinterpretation or shortfalls in presentation, and to make suggestions for improvements. These may be taken as a basis for future additions or amendments.
This VGB-Standard VGB-S-610, “Structural Design of Cooling Towers”, supersedes VGB Guideline VGB-R 610e of 2010 with the same name.
Further, also cited, VGB publications on the topic:
