• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.89-104
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• 2021

Non-synoptic winds generated by tornadoes, downbursts or gust fronts exhibit significant non-stationarity and can cause significant wind load effect on flexible structures such as long-span bridges. However, conventional assumptions on stationarity used to evaluate the structural wind-induced vibration are inadequate. In this paper, an efficient frequency domain scheme based on fast CQC method, which can predict non-stationary buffeting random responses of long-span bridges, is presented, and then this approach is applied to evaluate the buffeting response of a long-span suspension bridge located in a complex mountainous wind environment as an example. In this study, the data-driven method based on one available measured wind speed sample is firstly presented to establish non-stationary wind models, including time-varying mean wind speed, time-varying intensity envelope function and uniformly modulated fluctuating spectrum. Then, a linear time-variant (LTV) system based on the proposed scheme can be generally applied to calculate the non-stationary buffeting responses. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed scheme are verified through Monte Carlo time domain simulation implemented in ANSYS platform. Also, the transient effect nature of the bridge responses is further illustrated by comparison of the non-stationary, quasistationary and steady-state cases. Finally, buffeting response analysis with traditional stationary treatment (10 min constant mean plus stationary wind fluctuation) is performed to illustrate the importance of the non-stationary characteristics embedded in original wind speed samples.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.369-383
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• 2022

Wind tunnel experiment was carried out to study the cross-wind layer forces on a square cross-section building model using a synchronous multi-pressure sensing system. The stationarity of measured wind loadings are firstly examined, revealing the non-stationary feature of cross-wind forces. By converting the measured non-stationary wind forces into an energetically equivalent stationary process, the characteristics of local wind forces are studied, such as power spectrum density and spanwise coherence function. Mathematical models to describe properties of cross-wind forces at different layers are thus established. Then, a conditional simulation method, which is able to ex-tend pressure measurements starting from experimentally measured points, is proposed for the cross-wind loading. The method can reproduce the non-stationary cross-wind force by simulating a stationary process and the corresponding time varying amplitudes independently; in this way the non-stationary wind forces can finally be obtained by combining the two parts together. The feasibility and reliability of the proposed method is highlighted by an ex-ample of across wind loading simulation, based on the experimental results analyzed in the first part of the paper.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.315-329
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• 2019

Non-synoptic winds have distinctive statistical properties compared to synoptic winds and can produce different wind loads on buildings and structures. The current study uses the new capabilities of the WindEEE Dome at Western University to replicate a stationary non-Gaussian wind event recorded at the Port of La Spezia in Italy. These stationary non-Gaussian wind events are also known as intermediate wind events as they differ from non-stationary non-Gaussian events (e.g., downbursts) as well as stationary Gaussian events (e.g., atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flows). In the present study, the wind loads on a typical low-rise building are investigated for an intermediate wind event reproduced using a continuous radial impinging jet (IJ) at the WindEEE Dome. For the same building model, differences in wind loads between ABL and IJ are also examined. Wind loads on different surface zones on the building, as defined in the ASCE code for design loads, are also calculated and compared with the code.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.227-244
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• 2013

Non-stationary extreme winds such as thunderstorm downbursts are responsible for many structural damages. This research presents a time domain approach for estimating along-wind load effects on tall buildings using multiple wind speed time history samples, which are simulated from evolutionary power spectra density (EPSD) functions of non-stationary wind fluctuations using the method developed by the authors' earlier research. The influence of transient wind loads on various responses including time-varying mean, root-mean-square value and peak factor is also studied. Furthermore, a simplified model is proposed to describe the non-stationary wind fluctuation as a uniformly modulated process with a modulation function following the time-varying mean. Finally, the probabilistic extreme response and peak factor are quantified based on the up-crossing theory of non-stationary process. As compared to the time domain response analysis using limited samples of wind record, usually one sample, the analysis using multiple samples presented in this study will provide more statistical information of responses. The time domain simulation also facilitates consideration of nonlinearities of structural and wind load characteristics over previous frequency domain analysis.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.129-146
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• 2018

Extreme wind speed analysis has been carried out conventionally by assuming the extreme series data is stationary. However, time-varying trends of the extreme wind speed series could be detected at many surface meteorological stations in China. Two main reasons, exposure change and climate change, were provided to explain the temporal trends of daily maximum wind speed and annual maximum wind speed series data, recorded at Hangzhou (China) meteorological station. After making a correction on wind speed series for time varying exposure, it is necessary to perform non-stationary statistical modeling on the corrected extreme wind speed data series in addition to the classical extreme value analysis. The generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution with time-dependent location and scale parameters was selected as a non-stationary model to describe the corrected extreme wind speed series. The obtained non-stationary extreme value models were then used to estimate the non-stationary extreme wind speed quantiles with various mean recurrence intervals (MRIs) considering changing climate, and compared to the corresponding stationary ones with various MRIs for the Hangzhou area in China. The results indicate that the non-stationary property or dependence of extreme wind speed data should be carefully evaluated and reflected in the determination of design wind speeds.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.445-457
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• 2020

The buffeting response is a vital consideration for long-span bridges in typhoon-prone areas. In the conventional analysis, the turbulence and structural vibrations are assumed as stationary processes, which are, however, inconsistent with the non-stationary features observed in typhoon winds. This poses a question on how the stationary assumption would affect the evaluation of buffeting responses under non-stationary wind actions in nature. To figure out this problem, this paper presents a comparative study on buffeting responses of a long-span cable-stayed bridge based on stationary and non-stationary perspectives. The stationary and non-stationary buffeting analysis frameworks are firstly reviewed. Then, a modal analysis of the example bridge, Sutong Cable-stayed Bridge (SCB), is conducted, and stationary and non-stationary spectral models are derived based on measured typhoon winds. On this condition, the buffeting responses of SCB are finally analyzed by following stationary and non-stationary approaches. Although the stationary results are almost identical with the non-stationary results in the mean sense, the root-mean-square value of buffeting responses are underestimated by the stationary assumption as the time-varying features existing in the spectra of turbulence are neglected. The analytical results highlights a transition from stationarity to non-stationarity in the buffeting analysis of long-span bridges.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.129-146
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• 2024

Aiming at the problem of non-stationary wind field simulation of downbursts, a non-stationary down-burst generation system was designed by adding a nozzle and program control valve to the inlet of the original wall jet model. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to simulate the downburst. Firstly, the two-dimensional (2D) model was used to study the outflow situation, and the database of working conditions was formed. Then the combined superposition of working conditions was carried out to simulate the full-scale measured downburst. The three-dimensional (3D) large eddy simulation (LES) was used for further verification based on this superposition condition. Finally, the wind tunnel test is used to further verify. The results show that after the valve is opened, the wind ve-locity at low altitude increases rapidly, then stays stable, and the wind velocity at each point fluctuates. The velocity of the 2D model matches the wind velocity trend of the measured downburst well. The 3D model matches the measured downburst flow in terms of wind velocity and pulsation characteris-tics. The time-varying mean wind velocity of the wind tunnel test is in better agreement with the meas-ured time-varying mean wind velocity of the downburst. The power spectrum of fluctuating wind ve-locity at different vertical heights for the test condition also agrees well with the von Karman spectrum, and conforms to the "-5/3" law. The vertical profile of the maximum time-varying average wind veloci-ty obtained from the test shows the basic characteristics of the typical wind profile of the downburst. The effectiveness of the downburst generation system is verified.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1067-1085
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• 2016

Nonstationary features existing in tropical storms have been frequently captured in recent field measurements, and the applicability of the stationary theory to the analysis of wind characteristics needs to be discussed. In this study, a tropical storm called Nakri measured at Taizhou Bridge site based on structural health monitoring (SHM) system in 2014 is analyzed to give a comparison of the stationary and nonstationary characteristics. The stationarity of the wind records in the view of mean and variance is first evaluated with the run test method. Then the wind data are respectively analyzed with the traditional stationary model and the wavelet-based nonstationary model. The obtained wind characteristics such as the mean wind velocity, turbulence intensity, turbulence integral scale and power spectral density (PSD) are compared accordingly. Also, the stationary and nonstationary PSDs are fitted to present the turbulence energy distribution in frequency domain, among which a modulating function is included in the nonstationary PSD to revise the non-monotonicity. The modulated nonstationary PSD can be utilized to unconditionally simulate the turbulence presented by the nonstationary wind model. The results of this study recommend a transition from stationarity to nonstationarity in the analysis of wind characteristics, and further in the accurate prediction of wind-induced vibrations for engineering structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.3
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• pp.355-368
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• 2021

The time-varying mean (TVM) component of non-stationary wind speeds is commonly extracted utilizing empirical mode decomposition (EMD) in practice, whereas the accuracy of the extracted TVM is difficult to be quantified. To deal with this problem, this paper proposes an approach to identify and extract the optimal TVM from several TVM results obtained by the EMD. It is suggested that the optimal TVM of a 10-min time history of wind speeds should meet both the following conditions: (1) the probability density function (PDF) of fluctuating wind component agrees well with the modified Gaussian function (MGF). At this stage, a coefficient p is newly defined as an evaluation index to quantify the correlation between PDF and MGF. The smaller the p is, the better the derived TVM is; (2) the number of local maxima of obtained optimal TVM within a 10-min time interval is less than 6. The proposed approach is validated by a numerical example, and it is also adopted to extract the optimal TVM from the field measurement records of wind speeds collected during a sandstorm event.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.369-386
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• 2006

A combination Aerodynamic/Atmospheric Boundary Layer (AABL) Wind and Gust Tunnel with a unique active gust generation capability has been developed for wind engineering and industrial aerodynamics applications. This facility is a cornerstone component of the Wind Simulation and Testing (WiST) Laboratory of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU). The AABL Wind and Gust tunnel is primarily a closed-circuit tunnel that can be also operated in open-return mode. It is designed to accommodate two test sections ($2.44m{\times}1.83m$ and $2.44m{\times}2.21m$) with a maximum wind speed capability of 53 m/s. The gust generator is capable of producing non-stationary gust magnitudes around 27% of the mean flow speed. This paper describes the motivation for developing this gust generator and the work related to its design and testing.