Fiberglass Stacks - Analysis Concepts

Abstract The world's tallest free-standing glass, reinforced plastic (GRP) exhaust stack- scrubber system with a total height of 170 ft (51.8 m) has been manufactured for a sugar processing plant in Moses Lake, Washington, by Century Fiberglass, Anaheim, California. The GRI' stack and scrubber are used to control solid and gaseous emissions from a coal-fired boiler. This GRP stack replaces a 200 ft (61 m) high concrete stack which had been in service for over 20 years (Fig. 1). Vertical and lateral supports for the GRP stack are provided only at the base of the stack to resist dead loads, wind, and seismic forces. The 10 ft (3.05 m) diameter exhaust stack weighs 21,000 lb (93.4 kN) and has a tapered wall thickness varying from 0.25 in. (0.64 cm) at the top to 0.87 in. (2.21 cm) near the bottom. All previous GRP stack-scrubber systems more than 80 ft (24.4 m) in height have been laterally supported with guy wires or caged within a steel frame. Reference 1 provides a general summary of the design concepts i...