When the wind from Liupan Mountain in Ningxia sweeps across the new Materials Industrial park, carrying the unique dryness of the frontier, a faint metallic sound spreads along with the west wind - it's not the sound of the wind, but the 190-meter-tall steel-structured giant tower communicating with this land. At 9:28 on September 5, 2025, as the "Little Waist" slowly rose to 190 meters, the last steel truss was precisely "positioned" at a high altitude, and the spark of the welding torch flashed the last light in the sunlight. The No. 1 steel structure indirect air-cooled tower of Guoneng Liupanshan Power Plant, which was EPC contracted by Shouhang High-Tech Energy Technology Co., LTD., invested by National Energy Group and constructed by Hunan Industrial Installation Company, has officially been topped out. This "steel giant", which cost thousands of tons of steel and rose from the ground in just 89 days, is not only the first hyperbolic single-layer reticulated shell space structure intercooling tower in China, but also, with its dynamic posture as the "little waist of the West", has written a brand-new chapter in China's power engineering on the side of Liupan Mountain.

 

 

The locals have long given it a friendly name - "Western Little Waist". At this moment, it has not yet been covered with an aluminum alloy skin, but the exposed steel veins are like a huge steel sculpture, stretching out its power and beauty in the universe. The 155-meter-wide diameter at the base of the tower is like outstretched arms, firmly rooted in the yellow soil with 42 inclined supports. It gradually narrates upwards to 95 meters at the throat and then gently spreads out into a top arc of 99.4 meters. The entire tower is like a meticulously polished silver sword, piercing the sky and becoming a truly deserving "new peak on the side of Liupan Mountain".

 

01

Design Breakthrough: Industrial Buildings Grow "Breathing Curves"

 

When it comes to the air-cooled towers of thermal power plants, many people's first reaction is "dusty concrete columns" - heavy and dull, standing there like a "background board" in industrial production. But as soon as the "Western Little Waist" made its debut, it changed this preconceived impression with its "hyperbolic single-layer reticulated shell spatial structure".

 

 

Standing at the foot of the tower and looking up, the 190-meter height will make one hold their breath subconsciously. But what catches the eye even more is the curves that flow to the extreme: no abrupt turns, no superfluous decorations. The expansion at the bottom, the narrowing at the throat, and the extension at the top - every line seems to have been gently rubbed by the wind, as natural as if it had grown out of this land. At this moment, without any skin covering, the diagonal purlins and the grid shell structure of the tower body can be seen clearly. Every steel member is arranged in an orderly manner along the direction of force, like precisely calculated strings that can play the "melody of structure" with just a light touch - this is precisely the original intention of Shouhang High-Tech's "structure is aesthetics". No need for painting or decoration, let the framework of the building "speak" by itself.

 

"We never intended to package it with fancy designs from the very beginning." " The project design leader of Shouhang High-Tech squatted on the ground and drew an arc in the sand with a branch. "Look at this bend. It's the optimal solution calculated by the aerodynamics software: When the wind blows over, this arc can minimize the impact force and enable the air to circulate efficiently along the curve inside the tower. It is both aesthetically pleasing and practical - just like installing a breathing valve on the steel tower. This is what industrial design should look like.

 

Nowadays, this "little waist" that has just revealed its steel frame has become the most popular "check-in spot" in the industrial park. Passing workers would take out their mobile phones and shoot a short video of the curve of the tower. The elderly from the surrounding villages would come here with children's hands, pointing at the tower and saying, "This is a steel tower that 'breathes'." Even some long-distance drivers deliberately took a detour just to catch a glimpse of this industrial landscape that defies imagination. "Before, I always thought the towers of power plants were clumsy and ugly. I never expected this' little waist 'to be so delicate. Once the skin is installed, it will surely be more eye-catching than the distant Liupan Mountain!" " Master Wang, a fellow townsman from Guyuan who works in the industrial park, can't help but smile when talking about this tower.

 

02

Construction miracle: 89 days to "build the steel tower", with precision reaching the millimeter level

 

To assemble thousands of tons of steel into a 190-meter-high "little waist" is no less difficult than "building with blocks at a high altitude". However, the technical team of Shouhang High-Tech turned this "difficult task" into a "miracle" with an innovative solution - from the start of construction to the topping out, it only took 89 days, which was nearly 40% shorter than the traditional construction period. Moreover, the entire process was controlled by coordinates and the deformation deviation reached the millimeter level, setting a new record for the construction speed of super-large steel structure inter-cooling towers.

 

 

The most eye-catching feature at the construction site is not the towering tower cranes, but the rows of neatly assembled tire supports on the ground. "We disassembled the tower body into individual triangular steel units, prefabricated them in the factory first, then transported them to the site for pre-assembly, and finally hoisted them under the high tower for connection." " Master Li, a welder with 20 years of experience, is wearing goggles to inspect the weld seams. The welding torch is still warm. "In the past, when assembling rods at heights, I had to step on scaffolding and hold heavy tools in my hands. It was tiring and prone to mistakes." "Now, the 'building blocks' are assembled on the ground and directly connected when lifted up. The amount of high-altitude work has been reduced by 60%, the efficiency has increased by 30%, and it's also safe!" "

 

What is even more astonishing is the "detail control" : the position of each steel member is first "located" in the BIM model. On site, a laser is used to align the marking points, and the error can be precisely controlled within the millimeter level. When welding, "double-person symmetrical welding" is adopted. Two welding torches weld simultaneously from both sides of the steel unit, which not only reduces deformation but also achieves a 100% one-time pass rate for the weld seam. After welding, a flaw detector is used for a "physical examination" to ensure "no mistakes for decades".

 

For the 40-meter-high widened platform, the team innovatively adopted the "reverse assembly and cumulative lifting" technology - first assembling the platform structure on the ground, and then using lifting formwork to lift it layer by layer to a high altitude, avoiding the risk of setting up scaffolding at heights. One time, the wind came suddenly. We suspended a 3-ton steel unit 20 meters above the ground and waited for half an hour until the wind subsided before continuing. The construction manager smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if it's slow. Safety always comes first."

 

To ensure the safety and protection of the steel tower, the project has also installed an "intelligent nerve" - an Internet of Things system of "vibrating wire surface strain sensor + integrated acquisition instrument + smart monitoring cloud platform", which monitors the stress and deformation of the steel tower 24 hours a day. When there is strong wind in Ningxia, "time-sharing welding" is adopted: relying on meteorological monitoring to carry out low-wind-speed window operations, which not only ensures the welding quality but also prevents strong winds from affecting the stability of the tower body.

 

03

Technical Breakthrough: "Digital Armor" Withstands Strong Winds, Saving 3,000 swimming pools in a Year

 

The wind in Liupan Mountain is notorious for its "stubbornness" - a wind speed of 23.7 meters per second occurs once every 50 years, and it can reach 25.3 meters per second once every 100 years. Such a strong wind blowing against a 190-meter steel tower is like someone shaking a bamboo pole vigorously. To "tame" the strong wind, the engineers of Shouhang Hi-Tech brought out their "digital weapon" - the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT, and built a 1:1 numerical wind tunnel model of the steel tower.

 

 

"That month, we spent every day in front of the computer 'following the trend'." " The technical director pointed at the flow field diagram and said, "Winds of over 18m/s are the most troublesome: when the wind blows from the front, a negative pressure zone will form on the leeward side of the tower, and the air will 'swirl' into vortices, reducing the air intake volume." We repeatedly adjusted the curvature of the throat, optimized the layout of the nodes, and refined the density of the grid shell, just like putting on a layer of "digital armor" for the steel tower. Eventually, we minimized the impact of the eddy current.

 

In the drought-stricken Ningxia, "water conservation" is more urgent than wind resistance. Shouhang High-Tech has equipped the "Little Waist" with its self-developed indirect air cooling system - instead of relying on water for cooling in traditional wet-cooling towers, it uses indirect heat exchange between air and circulating water, which can save 70% of water in a year. If it operates for 8,000 hours a year, the water saved is equivalent to that of 3,000 standard swimming pools! The environmental protection official did the math: "For a water-scarce place like Guyuan, this is not just a figure; it's a real ecological guarantee." "

 

04

Spiritual Inheritance: Reaching New Heights by the Liupan Mountains

 

Standing beneath the steel frame of the "Western Little Waist", one can look up and see the distant Liupan Mountain - over 80 years ago, the Red Army crossed this mountain, leaving behind the heroic scene of "The peak of Liupan Mountain, the red flag fluttering in the west wind". Today, the builders of Little Waist have erected a new era "energy peak" on this red land.

 

"The topping out of this tower is a testament to our technological strength," said Huang Wenbo, the chairman of Shouhang High-Tech, standing firmly at the foot of the tower. "Back then, the Red Army relied on their courage to pass through Longshan Pass and Lazi Pass." Today, we rely on technological innovation to "tame" strong winds, achieve extreme water conservation, and overcome the "energy barrier" of the new era. In the future, we will continue to focus on new energy and new energy storage, and enable more "steel spines" to support national energy security!

 

 

The wind swept past the tower again, and the steel members made a slight "buzzing" sound, as if responding to this expectation. At this moment, although the "Western Little Waist" is only in the shape of a steel frame, it is not hard to imagine that when the aluminum alloy skin is installed, the metallic luster will complement the green mountains during the day. At night, the lights light up along the curve, like silver ribbons winding around the tower, and will become the brightest "star" in the night sky of Guyuan.

 

 

This 190-meter-tall steel tower is no longer merely an air-cooled tower. It serves as the "steel backbone" for energy supply security, an "ecological messenger" for green transformation, a "shining business card" for China's industrial innovation, and a magnificent epic written by the builders of the new era for Liupan Mountain, for the northwest, and for the country's energy cause. And this epic has only just turned to its first page.