Abstract
This study is concerned with the estimation of peak factors in the major cities reflecting the recent meteorological with wind data samples(yearly 2003-2012). Customarily, in the area of wind effects on structures, peak factors for Gaussian processes have been widely used in most codes and standards to estimate the expected extremes to wind loads and the related response for design application of tall buildings. However, this factor generally yields nonconservative values when applied to non-Gaussian processes, e.g., a time history of fluctuation wind speeds around tall buildings. The estimation of the extreme of non-Gaussian load effects for design applications has often been treated tacitly by invoking a conventional wind design(gust load peak factor) on the basis of Gaussian processes. This assumption breaks down when the loading processes exhibits non-Gaussianity, in which a conventional wind design yields relatively non conservative estimates because of failure to include long tail regions inherent to non-Gaussian processes. This study seeks to ascertain the probability distribution function, fluctuation wind velocity random processes and peak factor from recent wind data with largest yearly mean wind speed.