• 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.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.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.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.39 no.2
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• pp.125-140
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• 2024

The simulation of non-stationary wind velocity is particularly crucial for the wind resistant design of slender structures. Recently, some data-driven simulation methods have received much attention due to their straightforwardness. However, as the number of simulation points increases, it will face efficiency issues. Under such a background, in this paper, a time-varying coherence matrix decomposition method based on Diagonal Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (DPOD) interpolation is proposed for the data-driven simulation of non-stationary wind velocity based on S-transform (ST). Its core idea is to use coherence matrix decomposition instead of the decomposition of the measured time-frequency power spectrum matrix based on ST. The decomposition result of the time-varying coherence matrix is relatively smooth, so DPOD interpolation can be introduced to accelerate its decomposition, and the DPOD interpolation technology is extended to the simulation based on measured wind velocity. The numerical experiment has shown that the reconstruction results of coherence matrix interpolation are consistent with the target values, and the interpolation calculation efficiency is higher than that of the coherence matrix time-frequency interpolation method and the coherence matrix POD interpolation method. Compared to existing data-driven simulation methods, it addresses the efficiency issue in simulations where the number of Cholesky decompositions increases with the increase of simulation points, significantly enhancing the efficiency of simulating multivariate non-stationary wind velocities. Meanwhile, the simulation data preserved the time-frequency characteristics of the measured wind velocity well.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.77-88
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• 2009

A pulsed impinging jet is used to simulate the gust front of a thunderstorm downburst. This work concentrates on investigating the peak transient loading conditions on a 30 mm cubic model submerged in the simulated downburst flow. The outflow induced pressures are recorded and compared to those from boundary layer and steady wall jet flow. Given that peak winds associated with downburst events are often located in the transient frontal region, the importance of using a non-stationary modelling technique for assessing peak downburst wind loads is highlighted with comparisons.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 1984

A three-dimensional hydrodynamical numerical model of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea is formulated having irregular coastal boundaries and non-uniform depth distribution represntative of nature. The developed model is used to derive the currents driven by a steady uniform wind stress on the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. Numerical experiments have been performed with the model to determine the response of the shelf to stationary wind stress fields suddenly imposed on the shelf for wind directions of NW and SW winds and wind stress of 1.6dyn/$\textrm{cm}^2$. The dynamical feature of the derived circulation are presented and discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.39-63
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• 2011

Referring to the formulation of physical stochastic optimal control of structures and the scheme of optimal polynomial control, a nonlinear stochastic optimal control strategy is developed for a class of structural systems with hysteretic behaviors in the present paper. This control strategy provides an amenable approach to the classical stochastic optimal control strategies, bypasses the dilemma involved in It$\hat{o}$-type stochastic differential equations and is applicable to the dynamical systems driven by practical non-stationary and non-white random excitations, such as earthquake ground motions, strong winds and sea waves. The newly developed generalized optimal control policy is integrated in the nonlinear stochastic optimal control scheme so as to logically distribute the controllers and design their parameters associated with control gains. For illustrative purposes, the stochastic optimal controls of two base-excited multi-degree-of-freedom structural systems with hysteretic behavior in Clough bilinear model and Bouc-Wen differential model, respectively, are investigated. Numerical results reveal that a linear control with the 1st-order controller suffices even for the hysteretic structural systems when a control criterion in exceedance probability performance function for designing the weighting matrices is employed. This is practically meaningful due to the nonlinear controllers which may be associated with dynamical instabilities being saved. It is also noted that using the generalized optimal control policy, the maximum control effectiveness with the few number of control devices can be achieved, allowing for a desirable structural performance. It is remarked, meanwhile, that the response process and energy-dissipation behavior of the hysteretic structures are controlled to a certain extent.