Abstract
The wind load on a structure is proportional to the square of the wind speed. Extreme wind climate modeling should be required for specifying the design wind speed of structures. Extreme wind speeds for a storm type should be fitted in a suitable probability distribution, from which the design wind speed can be specified for a particular service life of a structure. The methodology, used in India for the specification of the design wind speed of existing structures, is fairly old and should be updated. Extreme wind climate in India is mainly influenced by thunderstorms and cyclones. Because thunderstorms and cyclones occur due to different geophysical reasons, it is necessary to fit extreme events of these two storm types in separate probability distributions, which can be subsequently combined to determine the overall non-exceedance probability. For a thunderstorm analysis, the wind speed data for three stations were considered, namely Kolkata, Lucknow and New Delhi. However, the statistical analysis greatly suffered due to the low ensemble size in Lucknow. Moreover, cyclones very rarely occur; as a result, cyclone modeling for the Bay of Bengal (total east coast) was initially considered to obtain a sufficient ensemble size. This paper provides a strategy to determine the specification of the design wind speed of structures at a particular location, which is affected by both thunderstorms and cyclones. The motivation of this work is to improve the current design methodology as well as the national code of standards to make engineering structures in India less vulnerable to damage due to strong winds.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Batts, M. E., Simiu, E., and Russel, L. R. (1980). “Hurricane wind speeds in the United States.” Journal of the Structural Division, Vol. 106, No. 10, pp. 2001–2016.
Chow, S. H. (1971). A study of the wind field in the planetary boundary layer of a moving tropical cyclone, MSc Thesis in Meteorology, School of Engineering and Science, New York University New York., USA.
Davison, A. C. and Smith, R. L. (1990). “Models of exceedances over high thresholds.” Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Series B, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 393–442.
Georgiou, P. N. (1985). Design wind speeds in tropical cyclone-prone regions, PhD Thesis, University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada.
Gomes, L., and Vickery, B. J. (1976). “On the prediction of tropical cyclone gust speeds along the Northern Australian coast.” Institute Engineers Australia C.E. Trans., Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 40–49.
Holland, G. J. (1980). “An analytical model of the wind and pressure profile in hurricanes.” Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 108, No. 8, pp. 1212–1218.
Kasperski, M. (2000). Specification and codification of design wind loads, Habilitation Thesis, Ruhr-Universität Bochum Germany.
Kasperski, M. (2009). “Specification of the design wind load: A critical review of code concepts.” Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 97, No. 7–8, pp. 335–357.
Krishna, P. (2010). “Application of wind tunnels.” Proceedings of Introduction to Seismic and Wind Resistant Design of Building Structures, New Delhi, India, pp. 62–79.
Meng, Y., Matsui, M., and Hibi, K. (1995). “An analytical model for simulation of the wind field in a typhoon boundary layer.” Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 56, Issues 2–3, pp. 291–310.
Meng, Y., Matsui, M., and Hibi, K. (1997). “A numerical study of the wind field in a typhoon boundary layer.” Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 67–68, pp. 437–448.
Rosenthal, S. L. (1962). “A theoretical analysis of the field of motion in the hurricane boundary layer.” National Hurricane Research Project Report, No. 56, pp. 12.
Russell, L. R. (1968). Probability distributions for Texas Gulf Coast hurricane effects of engineering interest, PhD Thesis, Stanford University Stanford, California, USA.
Russell, L. R. (1971). “Probability distributions for hurricane effects.” Journal of Waterways, Harbors and Coastal Engineering Division, Vol. 97, No. 1, pp. 139–154.
Shapiro, L. J. (1983). “The asymmetric boundary layer flow under a translating hurricane.” Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 40, No. 8, pp. 1984–1998.
Simiu, E. (1994). Estimation of extreme wind speeds, State of the Art in Wind Engineering, Wiley Eastern Limited New Delhi, London.
Simiu, E. and Heckert, N. A. (1996). “Extreme wind distribution tails: a ‘peaks over threshold’ approach.” Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 122, No. 5, pp. 539–547.
Thompson, E. F. and Cardone, V. J. (1996). “Practical modelling of hurricane surface wind fields.” Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, Vol. 122, No. 4, pp. 195–205.
Vickery, P. J. and Twisdale, L. A. (1995). “Wind-field and fitting models for hurricane wind-speed predictions.” Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 121, No. 11, pp. 1700–1709.
Xu, Y. L. and Huang, W. F. (2010). “Typhoon wind field simulation and design wind speed.” Proceeding of 7th International Advanced School on Wind Engineering, New Delhi, India, pp. 365–387.
Yoshizumi, S. (1968). “On the asymmetry of wind distribution in the lower layer of a typhoon.” Journal of Meteorological Society Japan, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 153–159.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sarkar, A., Kumar, N. & Mitra, D. Extreme wind climate modeling of some locations in India for the specification of the design wind speed of structures. KSCE J Civ Eng 18, 1496–1504 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0428-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0428-z