The cooling tower can be classified as a special structure, both in terms of reliability and size. The collapse of such a large tower, located closely to other buildings, may result in very serious consequences. It seems that special attention should be paid during design process of this kind of structures. Despite the increase in cost, the additional analysis and studies are indicated and also may raise reliability. The article presents the influence of wind action on the cooling tower. It consists of the studies on the issue of aerodynamic interference performed in the wind tunnel. The attention was particularly focused on the influence of the wind pressure on the shell of cooling tower, and on variability of these pressures on the surrounding objects. Making an adequate scale model, configuration of measuring equipment and an execution of wind tunnel tests will be described in this paper. The research was concentrated on measuring the pressure coefficients on the cooling tower surface in single situation and interference situations.

The cooling tower can be classified as a special structure, both in terms of reliability and size. The collapse of such a large tower, located closely to other buildings, may result in very serious consequences. It seems that special attention should be paid during design process of this kind of structures. Despite the increase in cost, the additional analysis and studies are indicated and also may raise reliability. The article presents the influence of wind action on the cooling tower. It consists of the studies on the issue of aerodynamic interference performed in the wind tunnel. The attention was particularly focused on the influence of the wind pressure on the shell of cooling tower, and on variability of these pressures on the surrounding objects. Making an adequate scale model, configuration of measuring equipment and an execution of wind tunnel tests will be described in this paper. The research was concentrated on measuring the pressure coefficients on the cooling tower surface in single situation and interference situations.