Shell structure for a cooling tower

Claim 1

Cooling tower comprising: an upright frame having a vertical axis supported by ground foundations, having three intersecting sets of bars defining a grid, one of the sets comprising substantially horizontal bars so located and connected as to constitute circumferential girdles vertically distributed along the frame while the other two sets comprises bars which are at angles with said horizontal bars, the bars of one of said other sets having an angle with the horizontal bars opposed to the angle of the bars of the other one of said two other sets, said bars being connected by assembling nodes each receiving bars belonging to all three of said sets and located at the nodal points of a substantially equilateral triangular network, said assembling nodes being distributed along a plurality of axially spaced horizontal rows; an annular veil defining a substantially continuous airflow guide stack, located within said frame and approximately parallel thereto and having an opening into the atmosphere; means for individually connecting said veil to only some of said nodes and maintaining said veil under tensile stress, said some of said nodes belonging to first ones of said rows which are separated by other ones of said rows which are separated from said veil and which are distributed throughout the axial length of the frame; and said annular veil including a plurality of vertically adjacent horizontal ring-shaped bands, and a separate connection means extending circumferentially within said frame for connecting adjacent bands and said separate connection means being secured to adjacent nodes in a horizontal plane.