A probability-based analysis of wind speed distribution and related structural response in southeast China

Abstract

Abstract According to the Chinese Load Code, the wind load for the structural design is based on the T-year return period of the annual maximum 10-min average wind speed. Therefore, determining the accurate regional annual maximum 10-min average wind speed, distribution is extremely important and essential. In this article, a new approach named generalised unified probability plotting (GUPP) method is proposed to parametrically analyse the regional wind speed distribution. The historical data of wind speed from 1953 to 2015 at southeast coastal city Xiamen, the distribution and parameters of the average 10-min annual maximum wind speeds are obtained. From the analysis results, the annual maximum 10-min average wind speed can be best modelled by the Pearson-III distribution among several distributions examined in the study, including the Gumbel distribution which underlies the Chinese Load Code. To further determine the significance of the updated wind speed distribution (namely the Pearson III), the wind-induced pressures at different story-levels of a high-rise building in Xiamen is examined relative to the Code-recommended distribution. Results show that the wind pressures corresponding to the Chinese Load Code is much higher than those of the Pearson-III. The difference is significant and may induce unreasonably high wind loads for design. AbbreviationsGupp Generalised Unified Probability Plot; CDF: Cumulative Distribution Function; PDF: Probability Density Function; QQ Plot: Quantile-Quantile Plot; RMS: Root Mean Square; K–S: Kolmogorov–Smirnov