HOW CAN WE SIMPLIFY AND GENERALIZE WIND LOADS

The complexity of wind loading arises from their variations in space a nd time. The paper discusses three key spatial functions which control the magnitude of responses: the influence lines, the mode shapes and pressure distributions. The last can be efficiently described in terms of orthonormal expansions. The paper describes how the different time dependent loadings the mean, the background and resonant responses - are related to the spatial functions. These tools provide a promising route for generalization and simplification of wind loading.