Zorlu Energy Cooling Tower Strengthening Works

We carried out the structural strengthening works of the Cooling Tower building at the Zorlu Enerji Kızıldere Geothermal Power Plant. The works comprised:

• Strengthening walls: Ten external buttress walls were built so that the cooling system inside the building could keep running during the works.

• New foundations: A new foundation was built under each strengthening wall.

• Anchorage: The strengthening walls were anchored to the existing columns and the new foundations to the existing foundations, so the system acts as one structure.

• Anchor pull-out tests: The anchors were pull-out tested under the supervision of the controlling engineer.

• Chemical render: Columns and beams with damaged surfaces were repaired and all surfaces were finished with chemical render.

• Shotcrete: On the top floor the column stirrups had corroded away, so all columns were re-tied with new stirrups and jacketed with shotcrete.

• Carbon fibre: Columns and beams found to be under capacity in the analyses were wrapped with carbon fibre to make up the shortfall.