Industrial chimneys are critical infrastructure components that ensure safe dispersion of pollutants from power plants and process industries while maintaining structural stability under complex loading conditions. Increasing chimney heights, stricter environmental regulations, and exposure to dynamic wind, seismic, and thermal actions have significantly increased the complexity of chimney design. As a result, a comprehensive understanding of the governing design parameters and their interaction is essential for safe and durable performance. The objective of this review is to systematically synthesize existing research on industrial chimney design parameters, covering structural, aerodynamic, seismic, thermal, environmental, and operational aspects. The review examines analytical, experimental, and numerical studies, as well as major national and international design codes, to identify dominant parameters, prevailing design practices, and emerging trends. Key findings indicate that chimney performance is strongly influenced by height-to-diameter ratio, shell thickness distribution, material properties, and foundation stiffness, with wind-induced vibration and thermal gradients often governing serviceability and durability. The review highlights the growing importance of coupled wind–seismic–thermal analysis, performance-based and probabilistic design approaches, and advanced optimization techniques, including AI-assisted methods. Identified research gaps include limited full-scale experimental data, insufficient life-cycle-based design frameworks, and the need for sustainable, low-carbon material integration. The review provides a consolidated reference to support informed design decisions and guide future research and code development.
Zade et al. (2026) studied this question.