• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.137-152
• /
• 2008

This paper discusses engineering aspects of the rear-flank downdraft that was recorded near Lubbock, Texas on 4 June 2002, and produced a gust wind speed nearly equal to the design value (50-year return period) for the region. The general characteristics of the storm, and the decomposition of the time histories into deterministic 'running mean' and random turbulence components are discussed. The fluctuating wind speeds generated by the event can be represented as a dominant low-frequency 'running mean' with superimposed random turbulence of higher frequencies. Spectral and correlation characteristics of the residual turbulence are found to be similar to those of high-frequency turbulence in boundary-layer winds. However, the low-frequency components in the running-mean wind speeds are spatially homogeneous, in contrast to the low-frequency turbulence found in synoptic boundary-layer winds. With respect to transmission line design, this results in significantly higher 'span reduction factors'.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.227-244
• /
• 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
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.37-55
• /
• 2010

In this paper South Africa is divided into strong wind climate zones, which indicate the main sources of annual maximum wind gusts. By the analysis of wind gust data of 94 weather stations, which had continuous climate time series of 10 years or longer, six sources, or strong-wind producing mechanisms, could be identified and zoned accordingly. The two primary causes of strong wind gusts are thunderstorm activity and extratropical low pressure systems, which are associated with the passage of cold fronts over the southern African subcontinent. Over the eastern and central interior of South Africa annual maximum wind gusts are usually caused by thunderstorm gust fronts during summer, while in the western and southern interior extratropical cyclones play the most dominant role. Along the coast and adjacent interior annual extreme gusts are usually caused by extratropical cyclones. Four secondary sources of strong winds are the ridging of the quasi-stationary Atlantic and Indian Ocean high pressure systems over the subcontinent, surface troughs to the west in the interior with strong ridging from the east, convergence from the interior towards isolated low pressure systems or deep coastal low pressure systems, and deep surface troughs on the West Coast.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.469-482
• /
• 2022

The generalized extreme value distribution (GEVD) is frequently used to fit the block maximum of environmental parameters such as the annual maximum wind speed. There are several methods for estimating the parameters of the GEV distribution, including the least-squares method (LSM). However, the application of the LSM with the expected order statistics has not been reported. This study fills this gap by proposing a fitting method based on the expected order statistics. The study also proposes a plotting position to approximate the expected order statistics; the proposed plotting position depends on the distribution shape parameter. The use of this approximation for distribution fitting is carried out. Simulation analysis results indicate that the developed fitting procedure based on the expected order statistics or its approximation for GEVD is effective for estimating the distribution parameters and quantiles. The values of the probability plotting correlation coefficient that may be used to test the distributional hypothesis are calculated and presented. The developed fitting method is applied to extreme thunderstorm and non-thunderstorm winds for several major cities in Canada. Also, the implication of using the GEVD and Gumbel distribution to model the extreme wind speed on the structural reliability is presented and elaborated.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.143-158
• /
• 2000

This report presents the findings of a one-year monitoring effort to empirically characterize and evaluate the nature of near-ground winds for structural engineering purposes. The current wind engineering practice in the United States does not explicitly consider certain important near-ground wind characteristics in typical rough terrain conditions and the possible effect on efficient design of low-rise structures, such as homes and other light-frame buildings that comprise most of the building population. Therefore, near ground wind data was collected for the purpose of comparing actual near-ground wind characteristics to the current U.S. wind engineering practice. The study provides data depicting variability of wind speeds, wind velocity profiles for a major thunderstorm event and a northeaster, and the influence of thunderstorms on annual extreme wind speeds at various heights above ground in a typical rough environment. Data showing the decrease in the power law exponent with increasing wind speed is also presented. It is demonstrated that near-ground wind speeds (i.e., less than 10 m above ground) are likely to be over-estimated in the current design practice by as much as 20 percent which may result in wind load over-estimate of about 50% for low-rise buildings in typical rough terrain. The importance of thunderstorm wind profiles on determination of design wind speeds and building loads (particularly for buildings substantially taller than 10 m) is also discussed. Recommendations are given for possible improvements to the current design practice in the United States with respect to low-rise buildings in rough terrain and for the need to study the impact of thunderstorm gust profile shapes on extreme value wind speed estimates and building loads.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.131-145
• /
• 2012

Severe wind is one of the major natural hazards in Australia. The component contributors to economic loss in Australia with regards to severe wind are tropical cyclones, thunderstorms and subtropical (synoptic) storms. Geoscience Australia's Risk and Impact Analysis Group (RIAG) is developing mathematical models to study a number of natural hazards including wind hazard. This paper discusses wind hazard under current and future climate conditions using RIAG's synoptic wind hazard model. This model can be used in non-cyclonic regions of Australia (Region A in the Australian-New Zealand Wind Loading Standard; AS/NZS 1170.2:2011) where the wind hazard is dominated by synoptic and thunderstorm gust winds.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.21-29
• /
• 2020

The wind field measurement of severe winds such as hurricanes (or typhoons), thunderstorm downbursts and other gales is important issue in wind engineering community, both for the construction and health monitoring of the wind-sensitive structures. Although several wireless data transmission systems have been available for the wind field measurement, most of them are not specially designed for the wind data measurement in structural wind engineering. Therefore, the field collection is still dominant in the field of structural wind engineering at present, especially for the measurement of the long-term and high-frequency wind speed data. In this study, for remote wind field measurement, a novel wireless long-term and high-frequency wind data acquisition system with the functions such as remote control and data compression is developed. The system structure and the collector are firstly presented. Subsequently, main functions of the collector are introduced. Also novel functions of the system and the comparison with existing systems are presented. Furthermore, the performance of this system is evaluated. In addition to as the wireless transmission for wind data and hardware integration for the collector, the developed system possesses a few novel features, such as the modification of wind data collection parameters by the remote control, the remarkable data compression before the data wireless transmission and monitoring the data collection by the cell phone application. It can be expected that this system would have wide applications in wind, meteorological and other communities.