THE STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF TALL AND SPECIAL BUILDINGS Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build.

13, 145163 (2004) Published online 7 July 2004 in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI:10.1002/tal.247

ON MODELLING OF TYPHOON-INDUCED NON-STATIONARY WIND SPEED FOR TALL BUILDINGS

J. CHEN AND Y. L. XU*
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong

SUMMARY Typhoon-induced wind around tall buildings may not be stationary because it is a large body of rotating air. A new approach is thus proposed in this paper for characterizing typhoon-induced wind speed. Typhoon-induced non-stationary wind speed is modelled as a deterministic time-varying mean wind speed component plus a zero mean stationary uctuating wind speed component. The time-varying mean wind speed is naturally extracted from the measured wind speed time history using empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Wind characteristics described in the traditional approach based on a stationary wind model are redened and extended in the nonstationary wind model. The new approach is then applied to wind data measured at the Di Wang building during Typhoon York. The results show that most of recorded wind samples are non-stationary but they can be decomposed into a time-varying mean wind speed component plus a well-behaved zero mean uctuating wind speed component admitted as a stationary random process with Gaussian distribution. Other wind characteristics such as probability distribution of uctuating wind speed, turbulence intensity, gust factor, and wind spectrum obtained by the new approach seem to be more realistic than those gained by the traditional approach. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

1.

INTRODUCTION

With the rapid development of new building materials and construction technology, many tall buildings have been built in major cities over the world. These buildings are slender and low damped and consequently more susceptible to wind-induced vibration. Knowledge on wind structure around and wind-induced response of tall buildings thus becomes more and more important to ensure human comfort and safety of the buildings. This triggers off the professional endeavour to carry out eld measurements on existing tall buildings during strong winds (Tamura et al., 1993; Miyashita et al., 1998). However, this is not a simple task; in particular, during strong typhoons and consequently, typhoon-induced wind characteristics have not been fully understood. In the traditional approach for characterizing wind speed in the longitudinal direction, wind speed is assumed as an ergodic random process consisting of a constant mean wind speed component and a longitudinal uctuating (turbulence) wind speed component. This approach is reasonably sound in characterizing the trade wind over a at terrain. However, limited wind data recorded during typhoons demonstrate that typhoon-induced boundary layer wind speed may not be stationary because it is a large body of rotating air (Adhikari and Yamaguchi, 1995). Trade wind speed affected by local topographical features may also not comply with the assumption of ergodic random processes or even stationary random processes (Smith and Mehta, 1993; Ashcroft, 1994). In recognition of limitation of

* Correspondence to: YouLin Xu, Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. E-mail: ceylxu@polyu.edu.hk

Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received May 2003 Accepted June 2003

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the traditional stationary wind model, Smith and Mehta (1993) used autoregressive (AR) models to investigate stationary and non-stationary wind data collected in the eld, and concluded that a thirdorder AR model could characterize wind speed and a longitudinal uctuating wind speed component near the surface of the ground. Gurley and Kareem (1999) discussed the application of wavelet transforms (WT) in earthquake, wind and ocean engineering. They concluded that wavelet analysis of hurricane wind time histories could characterize the transit nature of convective turbulence in hurricane wind. However, no detailed discussion and comparison with the traditional approach were provided in previous studies on non-stationary wind characteristics. This paper suggests a new approach for characterizing typhoon-induced non-stationary wind speed. Typhoon-induced non-stationary wind speed is modelled as a deterministic time-varying mean wind speed component plus a zero mean stationary uctuating wind speed component. The time-varying mean wind speed was naturally extracted from the non-stationary wind data using a newly developed data-processing method named the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The proposed approach was then applied to the wind data recorded at the top of the Di Wang building during Typhoon York. The wind characteristics, such as time-varying mean wind speed, probability distribution of uctuating wind speed, turbulence intensity, gust factor and wind spectrum, obtained by the new approach were compared with those gained by the traditional approach.

2. 2.1

NON-STATIONARY WIND SPEED MODEL

Traditional wind speed model

In the traditional wind speed model, boundary layer longitudinal wind speed U(t) is assumed as an ergodic random process consisting of two components: U (t ) = U + u(t ) (1)

where U is the constant mean wind speed component and u(t) is the longitudinal uctuating wind speed. The mean wind speed U can be estimated over a designated time interval T by U = 1 T

U (t )dt

(2)

The typical value used in practice for time interval T is 10 minutes or 1 hour, leading to the so-called 10-minute or hourly mean wind speed. The wind characteristics such as turbulence intensity, gust factor and wind spectrum can then be evaluated using the following features. The longitudinal turbulence intensity is dened as the ratio of standard deviation su of longitudinal uctuating wind speed to the mean wind speed U for the given time interval T. Iu = su U (3)

The probability distribution of longitudinal uctuating wind speed is deemed to closely follow the Gaussian distribution dened by p(u) =
Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

1 2 e -u 2p s u

2 2s u

(4)
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The gust factor is dened as the ratio of the maximum t1-averaged wind speed within 1 hour to the hourly mean wind speed (t1 3600 s). G(t1 ) = max[U (t1 )] U (3600) (5)

The most commonly used wind spectrum for longitudinal uctuating wind speed is the normalized von Karman spectrum (Simiu and Scanlan, 1996), which describes wind energy distribution over frequency f. f Su ( f ) 4( fLu U ) = 2 2 su 1 + 708( fLu U ) (6)

56

where Lu is the integral scale of longitudinal uctuating wind dened as follows: Lu = U Cu (t )dt
0

(7)

in which Cu(t) is the auto-covariance function normalized by the variance of longitudinal uctuating wind speed. 2.2 Non-stationary wind speed model

A preliminary study of non-stationary wind data recorded in the eld during a nearby typhoon reveals that the mean wind speed over 1 hour is often subject to a signicant temporal trend. Such a temporal trend is of very low frequency that is far less than the rst natural frequency of a tall building. The new wind speed model is thus proposed by taking the trend as a time-varying mean wind speed instead of a constant mean wind speed used in the traditional wind speed model. Accordingly, the non-stationary wind speed is modelled as U (t ) = U (t ) + u(t ) (8)

where U (t) is the deterministic time-varying mean wind speed reecting the temporal trend of wind speed, and u(t) is the uctuating component of wind speed that can be modelled as a zero-mean stationary process. Compared with the traditional stationary model of Equation (1), the new model introduces a time-varying mean wind to characterize the non-stationarity of the wind record. The new model is actually the basic trend plus stationary residual model for non-stationary random process as discussed by Bendata and Piersol (1986) and Priestly (1988). This model simply allows the mean wind speed to vary over time in an arbitrary fashion, providing a great exibility for considering the variation of mean wind speed with time. After U (t) being subtracted from U(t), the variance of longitudinal uctuating wind speed u(t) can be calculated in the traditional way.
2 su =

1 T

u 2 (t )

(9)

However, because a time-varying mean wind speed is introduced in the new model, some of wind characteristics used in the traditional approach should be redened. Turbulence intensity is now timeCopyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build. 13, 145163 (2004)

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dependent over the time interval T. The turbulence intensity obtained by the new model is thus dened as the mean value of the time-varying turbulence intensity over the time interval T. s u ,T Iu = E U T (t ) (10)

where E[] denotes the mean value over the time interval T, and su,T is the standard deviation dened by Equation (9). Similarly, the denition of gust factor is changed to the maximum ratio of the timevarying mean wind speed U t1(t) in time interval of t1 to the time-varying mean wind speed U h(t) in 1 hour. Ut (t ) G(t1 ) = max 1 Uh (t ) (11)

It can be seen that if wind speed U(t) is a strictly stationary random process, the time-varying mean wind speed U (t) in Equation (8) becomes the constant mean wind speed U as dened in Equation (1). Accordingly, Equations (10) and (11) become the same as Equations (3) and (5) for turbulence intensity and gust factor, respectively. Therefore, the non-stationary wind speed model proposed in this study can be used for characterizing either stationary or non-stationary wind speed. 3. 3.1 TIME-VARYING MEAN WIND SPEED

Empirical mode decomposition

The key issue of using the proposed model for characterizing non-stationary wind speed is how to extract an appropriate time-varying wind speed from a wind time history recorded in the eld. To circumvent this problem, a new data-processing method called the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), recently developed by Huang et al. (1998), is employed. The EMD can decompose any complicated data set, no matter whether it is a sample from a non-linear or non-stationary random process, into a nite but often small number of intrinsic mode functions (IMF). This decomposition procedure is adaptive because it is based on the local characteristic time scale of the data. Let U(t) represent a non-stationary wind speed time history to be analysed. The upper and lower envelopes of U(t) are constructed by connecting its local maxima and minima, respectively, using a cubic spline line. The mean of the two envelopes is then computed and subtracted from the original signal. The difference between the original time history and the mean value is called the rst IMF, c1(t), if it satises the two conditions: (1) within the data range, the number of extrema and the number of zero-crossings are equal or differ by one only; and (2) the envelope dened by the local maxima and the envelope dened by the local minima are symmetrical with respect to the mean. This process is called a sifting process. The difference between U(t) and c1(t) is then treated as a new time history and subjected to the same sifting process, giving the second IMF c2(t). The EMD procedure continues until the residue becomes so small that it is less than a predetermined value of consequence, or the residue becomes a monotonic function. The original time history U(t) is nally expressed as the sum of the IMFs plus the nal residue.
N

U (t ) = c j (t ) + r(t ) N
j =1

(12)

where N is the number of IMF components and r(t)N is the nal residue.
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3.2

Time-varying mean wind speed

To illustrate how to apply the EMD to the non-stationary wind speed time history to nd its timevarying mean wind speed, one of the non-stationary wind speed time histories of 1 hour duration recorded at the top of the Di Wang building during passage of Typhoon York was selected and is shown in Figure 1(a). Applying the EMD to this wind speed time history results in 13 IMF components and one residue as plotted in Figure 1(b) in sequence from curve 1 to curve 14. It is seen that the IMF components vary from the shortest period in curve 1 to the longest one in curve 14. The nal residue (curve 14) with a wavelength longer than the record length T = 3600 s is actually the trend of the wind speed time history concerned. This can clearly be observed from Figure 1(a), in which the nal residue is plotted together with the original wind speed time history as well as the hourly constant mean wind speed calculated by Equation (2) using the traditional wind model. The magnitude of the nal residue varies from 11.63 m/s to 15.09 m/s with an averaged value of 13.41 m/s, whereas the hourly mean wind speed as computed by the traditional wind model is 13.45 m/s. The nal residue obtained by the EMD is dened as the time-varying mean wind speed with the frequency components less than 1/3600 Hz. Obviously, such a time-varying mean wind speed will not cause any dynamic effect on most civil structures. To evaluate the applicability of the new model to stationary wind speed time histories, the EMD is applied to one of the stationary wind speed time histories of 1 hour duration recorded at the top of the Di Wang building during Typhoon York (see Figure 2). The resulting residue is also depicted in Figure 2 together with the hourly mean wind speed obtained by the traditional wind model. It is seen that the nal residue identied by the EMD from the given wind speed time history is almost constant in this case and it is very close to the hourly constant mean wind speed. Thus, one may conclude that the new model using the EMD to dene the time-varying mean wind speed can be applied not only to non-stationary wind speed data but also stationary wind speed data. Clearly, the EMD naturally extracts the time-varying mean wind speed from the recorded wind speed time history without requiring any prior information. However, for some strong non-stationary wind speed time histories of 1 hour duration the trend may contain frequency components greater than 1/3600 Hz. In such a case, the nal residue cannot represent the trend of wind speed, and the sum of the last a few IMF components plus the nal residue may be used to describe its trend. Figure 3 shows a strong non-stationary wind speed time history of 1 hour duration recorded at the top of the Di Wang building during Typhoon York. The nal residue obtained by the EMD, the sum of the nal residue and the last IMF component obtained by the EMD, and the hourly mean wind speed gained by the traditional wind model, are also plotted in Figure 3. Clearly, the trend of this wind speed record is represented best by the sum of the nal residue and the last IMF component. Inspired by this example, one may extend the concept of the aforementioned time-varying mean wind speed to more general cases in which a time-varying mean wind speed is taken as the sum of the last a few IMF components plus the nal residue.
N

U (t ) =

c (t) + r(t)
j j=M

(13)

where M is the number of the rst IMF component to be included in the time-varying mean wind speed (M N). M is determined by the highest frequency (the cut-off frequency) to be excluded in the time-varying mean wind speed. Supposing that the highest frequency in a time-varying mean wind speed should not exceed ft, M is then determined by (max[ Freq (c M )] < ft
Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

and max[ Freq (c M -1 )] ft )

M {1, , N}

(14)

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Wind speed (m/s)

16 14 12 10 8 6 0 Original wind sample Residue after EMD Hourly mean wind speed 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec) (a) Wind sample N6

0.6 0.0 -0.6 0.4 0.0 -0.4 0.3

(1)

1.5 0.0 -1.5

(8)

(2)

2 0 -2

(9)

(3)

2 0 -2

(10)

Wind speed (m/s)

0.0 -0.3 0.4 0.0 -0.4 1 0 -1 1 0 -1 2 0 -2 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

(4)

2 0 -2

(11)

(5)

1.5 0.0 -1.5

(12)

(6)

0.5 0.0 -0.5

(13)

(7)

15

(14)

12 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec)

Time (sec)

(b) EMD components

Figure 1. EMD components and time-varying mean wind speed (wind sample N6). (a) Wind sample N6. (b) EMD components
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ON MODELLING OF TYPHOON-INDUCED NON-STATIONARY WIND SPEED

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50

Wind speed (m/s)

40

30

20 Original wind sample Residue after EMD Hourly mean wind speed 10 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec)
Figure 2. Time-varying mean wind speed of stationary wind sample N14

18

15

Wind speed (m/s)

Original wind sample Residue after EMD Sum of residue and last IMF Hourly mean wind speed

12

3 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec)
Figure 3. Time-varying mean wind speed of non-stationary wind sample N3
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where Freq () means the function for selecting frequency component; and cM and cM-1 are the Mth and (M - 1)th IMF, respectively. The solution of M in Equation (14) can be found using the EMD by setting ft as a cut-off frequency in the intermittency check (Huang et al., 1999). The intermittency check is a tool in the EMD, which can be implemented during the sifting process to remove frequency components lower than the cut-off frequency ft from the (M - 1)th IMF in the time domain. It will be demonstrated in the next section that the time-varying mean wind speed dened by Equations (13) and (14) has a certain relationship with the traditional time-averaged mean wind speed.

4.

APPLICATION

The proposed non-stationary wind model together with the EMD is now applied to wind data recorded at the top of the Di Wang building during Typhoon York. The wind characteristics such as time-varying mean wind speed, probability distribution of uctuating wind speed, turbulence intensity, gust factor, and wind spectrum obtained by the new approach are compared with those gained by the traditional wind model.

4.1

Data source

The Di Wang building is one of the tallest composite buildings in the world, located in the downtown Shenzhen City of China about 2 km from the Hong Kong border. The building has 69 storeys and a total height of 384 m at the top of its mast. The cross-section of the building is composed of a rectangle and two semicircles, leading to a 70 m width and a 37 m depth for the building. There are two masts of circular section erected on the top of the main structure of the building at the centre of each semicircle. A wind and structural monitoring system was installed on the Di Wang building, in which each mast had an R. M Youngs propeller anemometer (Model 05103, made in the USA) mounted to measure wind speed and wind direction at a height of 348 m above the ground. The two anemometers, termed the north anemometer and the south anemometer hereafter, had the same wind speed measurement range from zero to 60 m/s. The wind direction measurement range of the anemometer through a vane controlled by a potentiometer was 360 degrees mechanically and 355 degrees electrically. Detailed information on the wind and structural monitoring system installed in the Di Wang building can be found in Xu and Zhang (2001). On the early morning of 16 September 1999, Typhoon York, which is the strongest typhoon since 1983 and the typhoon of the longest duration on record, hit Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The wind and structural monitoring system installed in the Di Wang building timely recorded both wind and structural response data with a sampling frequency of 15 Hz. The recorded time histories of wind velocity of 38 hours duration starting from 17:20 Hong Kong Time (HKT), 15 September 1999 to 8:20 HKT, 17 September 1999 are analysed in this paper using both the proposed new wind model and the traditional wind model. The 10-minute mean wind speed and direction obtained directly from the measured wind data are plotted in Figures 4(a) and 4(b) for the south and north anemometer, respectively. It is seen that wind direction varies signicantly within 38 hours duration. This study concerns mainly the characteristics of longitudinal wind speed. Thus, the original wind data should be decomposed properly to nd the longitudinal wind speed and its direction. The horizontal wind speed UH(t) and direction a(t) directly measured from the anemometers are rst decomposed to nd two perpendicular wind components in due south and due east by using the following equations: Us (t ) = U H (t ) cos a (t ) and U E (t ) = U H (t ) sin a (t )
Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

(15)

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ON MODELLING OF TYPHOON-INDUCED NON-STATIONARY WIND SPEED

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The directional cosines of the longitudinal wind speed in the given time duration T are then determined by cos a = where US = 1 T 1 T US U and cosb = UE U (16)

U S (t )dt

(17)

UE =

U E (t )dt

(18) (19)

U = U S2 + U E2

Finally, the longitudinal wind speed U(t) and the lateral turbulence component v(t) which is horizontal and normal to the longitudinal direction can be obtained by U (t ) = U S (t ) cos a + U E (t ) cos b v(t ) = -U S (t ) cos b + U E (t ) cos a 4.2 Stationarity of wind data (20) (21)

Before applying the proposed wind model to wind data recorded at the top of the Di Wang building during Typhoon York, the stationarity test is applied to longitudinal wind speed time histories. There are a total of 76 longitudinal wind speed time histories of 1 hour duration, extracted from the continuously measured wind speed and wind direction of 38 hours duration from each anemometer based on Equation (20). Each sample is further evenly divided into 30 segments. The run test method suggested by Bendat and Piersol (1986) is then applied to each sample to evaluate its stationarity in terms of the mean square value. For the sake of description, hereafter the longitudinal wind speed time history from the south/north anemometer during the ith hour is denoted Si/Ni. For instance, the longitudinal wind speed time history from the south anemometer during the 17th hour is expressed as S17. The stationarity test results for a signicance level of 0.05 are given in Table 1. It is seen that only 33 out of 76 samples pass the stationarity test, leading to more than 55% of the samples being

Table 1. Run test results from 76 samples of 1 hour duration Constant mean wind speed Location South North Total Passing 14 19 33 % 368% 500% 434% Time-varying mean wind speed ft = 1/3600 Hz Passing 30 29 59 % 789% 763% 776% ft = 1/1800 Hz Passing 33 30 63 % 868% 789% 829% ft = 1/1200 Hz Passing 34 30 64 % 895% 789% 842%

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classied as non-stationary wind speed samples. The results are expectable since the mean wind direction changes signicantly in a certain time period as shown in Figure 4. For wind samples that fail to pass the stationarity test, the nal residue ( ft = 1/3600 Hz) identied by the EMD is taken as a time-varying mean wind speed and subtracted from the original time history to form a new sample. The run test is then applied to the new sample with the same signicance level of 0.05. The obtained results are also listed in Table 1. It is seen that 26 more wind samples now pass the stationarity test, resulting in 59 out of 78 samples being regarded as stationary wind speed time histories. A careful examination of longitudinal wind speed samples that still fail in the second stationarity test reveals that a more complicated time-varying mean wind speed other than the nal residue only may need to reect its trend. In this regard, the cut-off frequency ft in Equation (14) is increased from 1/3600 Hz to 1/1800 Hz, and the EMD together with intermittence check is applied to wind speed samples failing in the second stationarity test to determine a new time-varying mean wind speed. New samples are then obtained by extracting the time-varying mean wind speed with a cut-off frequency of 1/1800 Hz from the original wind sample, and the third round of stationary test is then applied. As a result, four more wind samples can be classied as stationary samples. A similar exercise is applied to the rest of the non-stationary wind samples with a cut-off frequency of 1/1200 Hz. Only one more sample can be regarded as a stationary sample (see Table 1). The aforementioned stationarity test results clearly demonstrate that the non-stationarity of longitudinal wind speed time histories recorded during Typhoon York is mainly attributed to the existence of a time-varying mean wind speed. After extracting such a time-varying mean wind speed from the original wind speed time history, a stationary longitudinal uctuating wind speed component can be achieved for most of the wind samples. The proposed non-stationary wind model together with the EMD enables most of the longitudinal wind speed time histories recorded during Typhoon York to be analysed. 4.3 Time-varying and time-averaged mean wind speed

The time-varying mean wind speed obtained by the EMD at a designated frequency level can be related to the traditional time-averaged mean wind speed over the corresponding time interval. Displayed in Figures 5(a), 6(a) and 7(a) are the time histories of three typical wind samples: S16, S29 and S32. The wind sample S16 is one with almost constant mean wind speed. The wind sample S29 is a stationary sample only when the nal residue identied by the EMD is subtracted from the original sample. The wind sample S32 becomes a stationary sample only when the time-varying mean wind speed of cutoff frequency 1/1800 Hz is subtracted from the original sample. For each wind sample, the timevarying mean wind speed is obtained by the EMD at the cut-off frequencies of 1/600, 1/300 and 1/200 Hz and compared with the time-averaged mean wind speed of the same sample calculated by Equation (2) over the time intervals of 600, 300 and 200 seconds, respectively. The results from the two approaches are plotted in Figures 57 for wind samples S16, S29 and S32, respectively. It is seen that the time-varying mean wind with a cut-off frequency 1/T Hz is similar to the time-averaged mean wind speed over a time interval T seconds, which is particularly true for the wind sample S32. The timevarying mean wind speed, however, is a continuous function of time with a designated frequency level, which is more natural and convenient than the time-averaged mean wind speed to describe the mean wind. 4.4 Probability distribution of uctuating wind speed

The probability distribution of longitudinal wind speed is generally assumed to follow a Gaussian distribution for a stationary wind speed record. For non-stationary wind samples mainly due to the presCopyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build. 13, 145163 (2004)

ON MODELLING OF TYPHOON-INDUCED NON-STATIONARY WIND SPEED

155

50

250

40

Mean wind speed (m/s)

35.6

200

30

150

20

100

10

50

0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

0 40

Measurement time (hour) (a) South anemometer

50 250

40

Mean wind speed (m/s)

34.5

200

30

150

20

100

10

50

0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

0 40

Measurement time (hour) (b) North anemometer

Figure 4. 10-minute mean wind speed and direction. (a) South anemometer. (b) North anemometer
Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build. 13, 145163 (2004)

Mean wind direction (degree)

Wind speed Wind direction

Mean wind direction (degree)

Wind speed Wind direction

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J. CHEN AND Y. L. XU
33 Time-varying mean wind speed (f c=1/600Hz) Time-averaged mean wind speed (Dt=600sec) 30

Wind speed (m/s)

Wind speed (m/s)

3000 3600

27

24

21 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec) (a) Original wind sample

33 Time-varying mean wind speed (fc=1/300Hz) Time-averaged mean wind speed (D t=300sec) 33

Time (sec) (b) 600second time interval

Time-varying mean wind speed (fc=1/200Hz) Time-averaged mean wind speed (Dt=200sec)

Wind speed (m/s)

27

Wind speed (m/s)

0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

30

30

27

24

24

21

21 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec) (c) 300second time interval

Time (sec) (d) 200second time interval

Figure 5. Comparison of time-varying and time-averaged mean wind speeds (S16). (a) Original wind sample. (b) 600-second time interval. (c) 300-second time interval. (d) 200-second time interval

ence of time-varying mean wind speed, it is interesting to see the probability distribution of uctuating wind speed obtained from the subtraction of a time-varying mean wind speed or a constant mean wind speed from the original wind record. For each of wind samples S16, S29 and S32, the uctuating wind speed time history is rst extracted by subtracting the hourly mean wind speed or the time-varying mean wind speed (the trend) from the original sample. The cut-off frequency used in dening the time-varying mean wind speed is 1/3600, 1/3600 and 1/1800 Hz for S16, S29 and S32, respectively. The two uctuating wind speed time histories are then analysed to obtain the probability distribution functions. The two probability distribution functions are nally compared with the standard Gaussian distribution. Figures 8(a), 8(b) and 8(c) display the probability distribution functions for wind samples S16, S29 and S32, respectively. It is seen from Figure 8(a) that for the originally stationary wind sample S16 the probability distributions obtained by the two approaches are very close to each other and both comply with the Gaussian distribution. For wind sample S29, Figure 8(b) shows that the Gaussian distribution ts the probability distribution of uctuating wind speed obtained from the non-stationary model much better than that obtained by the traditional wind model. The results shown in Figure 8(c) for wind sample S32 further demonstrate that the uctuating wind speed obtained by the non-stationary model ts the Gaussian distribution well but the uctuating wind speed gained using the traditional wind model departs from the Gaussian distribution signicantly. Thus, it may be concluded that the proposed non-stationary
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ON MODELLING OF TYPHOON-INDUCED NON-STATIONARY WIND SPEED

21 17 Time-varying mean wind speed (fc=1/600Hz) 18 16 Time-averaged mean wind speed (Dt=600sec)

157

Wind speed (m/s)

Wind speed (m/s)

0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

15

15

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12

13

12

11 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec) (a) Original wind sample

17 Time-varying mean wind speed (fc=1/300Hz) 16 Time-averaged mean wind speed (D t=300sec) 16 17

Time (sec) (b) 600second time interval

Time-varying mean wind speed (fc=1/200Hz) Time-averaged mean wind speed (Dt=200sec)

Wind speed (m/s)

15

Wind speed (m/s)

0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

15

14

14

13

13

12

12

11

11 0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

Time (sec) (c) 300second time interval

Time (sec) (d) 200second time interval

Figure 6. Comparison of time-varying and time-averaged mean wind speeds (S29). (a) Original wind sample. (b) 600-second time interval. (c) 300-second time interval. (d.) 200-second time interval

wind model together with the EMD does provide a correct method for characterizing non-stationary wind speeds. 4.5 Wind spectrum

The auto-spectrum of uctuating wind speed describes uctuating wind energy distribution over frequency. It is very important in predicting the wind-induced dynamic response of tall buildings in practice. The spectral analysis is thus performed on the three typical wind samples S16, S29 and S32 used in the probability analysis to nd their wind spectra. The spectral analysis is performed on each wind sample in two ways: one is performed on the uctuating wind speed obtained from the subtraction of the hourly mean wind speed from the original wind sample (the traditional approach); and the other is on the stationary uctuating wind speed gained from the subtraction of the time-varying mean wind speed (the trend in the EMD approach) from the original wind sample. The frequency resolution used in the spectral analysis is 0.000916 Hz. Figure 9(a) displays the normalized spectral density functions obtained by the two approaches for wind sample S16. It is seen that the two spectral density functions are overlapped within the entire frequency range concerned. This is owing to the fact that wind sample S16 is stationary, and accordingly the time-varying mean wind speed (the trend) obtained by the EMD approach is almost the same
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16 Time-varying mean wind speed (fc=1/300Hz) Time-averaged mean wind speed ( t=300sec) 14 14 16

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0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600

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Time (sec) (c) 300second time interval

Time (sec) (d) 200second time interval

Figure 7. Comparison of time-varying and time-averaged mean wind speeds (S32). (a) Original wind sample. (b) 600-second time interval. (c) 300-second time interval. (d) 200-second time interval

as the hourly mean wind speed obtained by the traditional approach. Figure 9(b) demonstrates the two spectral density functions for wind sample S29. It is seen that the two spectral density functions are very similar, which indicates that the removal of the nal residue from the original wind sample does not affect the wind spectrum. The two spectral density functions for wind sample S32 are depicted in Figure 9(c). It is seen that the spectral amplitude obtained by the proposed wind model is slightly lower than that obtained by the traditional wind model in the frequency range lower than 0.007 Hz. In the frequency range higher than 0.007 Hz, the two spectral density functions are very similar. The effect of the spectral amplitude reduction on wind-induced dynamic response of very exible structures deserves further studies. Furthermore, in consideration that spectral analysis is theoretically applicable to stationary wind sample only, one may infer that the wind spectrum obtained by the proposed wind model is more reasonable than that by the traditional wind model. 4.6 Turbulence intensity

The turbulence intensity, traditionally expressed by Equation (3), is redened in this study using Equation (10) for non-stationary wind samples. To have a comparison of turbulence intensity obtained by the two approaches, the turbulence intensities of all the wind samples recorded by the south anemometer are calculated using the two approaches. The results are shown in Figure 10 for 1 hour time interCopyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build. 13, 145163 (2004)

ON MODELLING OF TYPHOON-INDUCED NON-STATIONARY WIND SPEED

0.12 0.10 Hourly mean wind speed Time-varying mean wind speed Gaussian fit

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Probability density

0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.00 -12 -9 -6 -3 0 3 6 9 12

Fluctuating wind speed (m/s) (a) Wind sample S16

0.36 0.30 Hourly mean wind speed Time-varying mean wind speed Gaussian fit

Probability density

0.24 0.18 0.12 0.06 0.00 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4

Fluctuating wind speed (m/s) (b) Wind sample S29

0.36 0.30
Hourly mean wind speed Time-varying mean wind speed Gaussian fit

Probability density

0.24 0.18 0.12 0.06 0.00 -6 -3 0 3 6

Fluctuating wind speed (m/s) (c) Wind sample S32

Figure 8. Comparison of probability distribution of uctuating wind speed. (a) Wind sample S16. (b) Wind sample S29. (c) Wind sample S32

val, in which the time-varying mean wind speed used in the new approach is dened at a frequency level less than 1/3600 Hz. As can be seen from Figure 10 for 1 hour wind samples, the new approach may give lower values of turbulence intensity than those obtained by the traditional wind model. The maximum difference
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-3

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(c) Wind sample S32

Figure 9. Comparison of spectral density function. (a) Wind sample S16. (b) Wind sample S29. (c) Wind sample S32

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Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build. 13, 145163 (2004)

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Turbulence intensity Iu (%)

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10 Traditional approach New approach 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Time (hour)

Figure 10. Comparison of turbulence intensities (south anemometer)

of turbulence intensity appears at the 30th hour with the turbulence intensity 8.6% from the new approach and 16.3% from the traditional approach. This is because an unreasonable higher standard deviation of uctuating wind speed will be calculated if an hourly mean wind speed is removed from a non-stationary wind sample with strong time-varying mean wind. Schroeder et al. (1998) also made the same comment that the traditional approach may overestimate turbulence intensity for non-stationary wind. Thus, the turbulence intensity estimated by the proposed approach seems more reasonable than that obtained using the traditional approach. 4.7 Gust factor

The gust factor is traditionally dened as the ratio of the gust speed of gust duration t1 to hourly mean wind speed, as expressed by Equation (6), for a stationary wind sample of Gaussian distribution. For a non-stationary wind sample that can be described by Equation (8), the gust factor may be computed by the EMD approach according to Equation (11). A comparison of gust factor obtained by the two approaches is carried out here using both stationary and non-stationary wind samples. The stationary wind samples include S16, S17, S18 and S19, while the non-stationary wind samples involve S30, S31, S32 and S33. The gust factors are calculated for a series of gust duration at 3, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1800 and 3600 seconds. The resulting gust factors obtained by the traditional approach are plotted in Figure 11(a) against the gust duration, while the results obtained by the new approach are shown in Figure 11(b). The gust factor obtained by the new approach seems, in general, slightly larger than that obtained by the traditional approach. The maximum difference of gust factor for the stationary wind samples is only about 7%, appearing in wind sample S19 for a gust duration of 500 seconds with a gust factor of 1.15 from the new approach and 1.08 from the traditional approach. For non-stationary wind samples, on the other hand, the maximum difference is about 10%, occurring in wind sample S33 for a gust duration of 100 seconds with the gust factor of 1.25 and 1.14 from the new and traditional approaches, respectively. It is also seen that the variation of gust factor with gust duration obtained by either approach conforms approximately to a straight line if the curve is plotted in a semi-logarithmic scale.
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South anemometer S30 S16 S31 S17 S18 S32 S33 S19

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1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 1 10 100 1000 10000

Gust duration (second) (a) Traditional approach

2.0 1.8 1.6
South anemometer S16 S30 S17 S31 S18 S32 S19 S33

Gust factor

1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 1 10 100 1000 10000

Gust duration (second) (b) New approach

Figure 11. Comparison of gust factor. (a) Traditional approach. (b) New approach

5. CONCLUSIONS A new approach has been proposed in this paper for characterizing typhoon-induced wind speed and has been applied to wind data measured at the top of the Di Wang building during Typhoon York. It was found that most of the measured longitudinal wind speed time histories of 1 hour duration were non-stationary but they could be decomposed into a deterministic time-varying mean wind speed plus a stationary uctuating wind component. The time-varying mean wind speed could naturally be extracted from the measured wind speed time histories using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The time-varying mean wind speed dened in the new approach had a certain relationship with the traditional time-averaged mean wind speed but it was more natural and convenient to use the new approach. The longitudinal uctuating wind components obtained by the new approach from nonstationary wind records complied with the standard Gaussian distribution but those gained from the traditional approach departed from the Gaussian distribution signicantly. The spectral density functions of uctuating wind components obtained by the new approach had slightly lower amplitude in the very low frequency range than those gained by the traditional approach. The turbulence intensities calculated by the new approach were more reasonable than those from the traditional approach. The gust factors obtained by the new approach were similar to those attained by the traditional
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approach. It can be concluded that the proposed approach is more appropriate than the traditional approach for characterizing typhoon-induced wind speed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writers are grateful for nancial support from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University through its Outstanding Young Professor Scheme and its Area of Strategic Development Programme in Structural Health Monitoring and Damage Detection to the second writer. Sincere thanks also go to Associate Professor Ray Zhang of Colorado School of Mines, USA, for valuable discussion on the EMD.
REFERENCES

Adhikari R, Yamaguchi H. 1995. A study on the non-stationarity in wind and wind-induced response of tall buildings for adaptive control. In Proceedings of Ninth International Conference on Wind Engineering, Vol. 3. Wiley Eastern: New Delhi; 14551466. Ashcroft J. 1994. The relationship between the gust ratio, terrain roughness, gust duration and the hourly mean wind speed. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 53(3): 331355. Bendat JS, Piersol AG. 1986. Random Data: Analysis and Measurement Procedures, (2nd edn). Wiley: New York. Gurley K, Kareem A. 1999. Application of wavelet transform in earthquake, wind and ocean engineering. Engineering Structures 21: 149167. Huang NE, Shen Z, Long SR, Wu MC, Shih HH, Zheng Q, Yen NC, Tung CC, Liu HH. 1998. The empirical mode decomposition and the Hilbert spectrum for nonlinear and non-stationary time series analysis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A 454: 903995. Huang NE, Shen Z, Long SR. 1999. A new view of nonlinear water waves: Hilbert spectrum. Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics 31: 417457. Miyashita K, Itoh M, Fujii K, Yamashita J, Takahashi T. 1998. Full-scale measurements of wind-induced responses on the Hamamatsu ACT tower. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 7476: 943953. Priestly MB. 1988. Non-Linear and Non-Stationary Time Series Analysis. Academic Press: London. Schroeder JL, Smith DA, Peterson RE. 1998. Variation of turbulence intensities and integral scales during the passage of a hurricane. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 77, 78: 6572. Simiu E, Scanlan RH. 1996. Wind Effects on Structures. Wiley: New York. Smith AD, Mehta CK. 1993. Investigation of stationary and nonstationary wind data using classical BoxJenkins models. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 49(13): 319328. Tamura Y, Shimada K, Hibi K. 1993. Wind response of a tower (Typhoon observation at the Nagasaki Huis Ten Bosch Domtoren). Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 50: 309318. Xu YL, Zhang S. 2001. Field measurements of Di Wang Tower during Typhoon York. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 89(1): 7393.

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Struct. Design Tall Spec. Build. 13, 145163 (2004)