Hardening Cooling Towers Against Extreme Weather

Climate change might lead to more severe wind storms. Hardening equipment to make it less susceptible to damage from extreme winds may be an important path to ensuring well-functioning and reliable services. Valero, a manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels and petrochemical products, installed locking systems that immobilize fan blades of its cooling towers during high winds. Securing the fan blades will prevent them from becoming dislodged and launched during extreme wind events. This operation is considered the most important one when storm-hardening a cooling tower because of the danger posed by flying fan blades and because of potential internal damages to the structure.