E. Simiu et Na. Heckert, EXTREME WIND DISTRIBUTION TAILS - A PEAKS OVER THRESHOLD APPROACH, Journal of structural engineering, 122(5), 1996, pp. 539-547
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
Engineering, Civil","Construcion & Building Technology
We seek to ascertain whether the reverse Weibull distribution is an ap
propriate extreme windspeed model by performing statistical analyses b
ased on the ''peaks over threshold'' approach. We use the de Haan meth
od, which was found in previous studies to perform about as well or be
tter than the Pickands and cumulative mean exceedance methods, and has
the advantage of providing estimates of confidence bounds. The data a
re taken principally from records of the largest daily wind speeds obt
ained over periods of 15 to 26 years at 44 U.S. weather stations in ar
eas not subjected to mature hurricane winds. From these records we cre
ate samples with reduced mutual correlation among the data. In our opi
nion, the analyses provide persuasive evidence that extreme wind speed
s are described predominantly by reverse Weibull distributions, which
unlike the Gumbel distribution have a finite upper tail and lead to re
asonable estimates of wind load factors. Instructions are provided for
accessing the data and attendant programs.