Natural draught cooling towers definitely belong to the largest and thinnest industrial buildings of our time. At time load-bearing behaviour is widely researched, but there still exist many questions concerning especially the influences of fatigue, cracking- and corrosion of reinforced concrete and of non-axisymmetric loading and soil characteristics. Already from the beginning of the state of design the aspects of durability must be considered carefully. To fulfil this demand numerical solutions of the possible damage processes are necessary. Such investigations have been made on the presently world-wide highest natural draught cooling tower at Niederaußem, with an overall height of 200 m, in the lignite area close to Cologne, Germany. At this location the RWE Energie AG expand the existing powerplant to increase its efficiency and power. Cause of the existing built-up area the wind situation is much more complicated. This is only one factor which makes a special design and building of the tower necessary.

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