Cooling tower is a kind of large-scale structures used in power or chemical plants and mostly built of reinforced concrete in the form of thin shells. As the scale of construction has substantially increased during the past,steel structure becomes an alternative option in the design of cooling towers. In this paper,a novel structural system for steel cooling tower,which is composed of braced triangular girds,is proposed. Structural arrangement,working principle of structural members and nodal joint construction are introduced in detail. Structural behaviors,including internal force distribution,stiffness and stability,are investigated by an example. Results reveal that the global structure has satisfying structural performance by giving full play to the bearing capability of the structural members. The structural system exhibits good applicability by its structural performance as well as the simplicity of nodal joint construction and light selfweight.