I. Gullo et al., NON-GAUSSIAN PROBABILITY DENSITY-FUNCTION OF SDOF LINEAR STRUCTURES UNDER WIND ACTIONS, Journal of wind engineering and industrial aerodynamics, 74-6, 1998, pp. 1123-1134
Wind velocity is usually analytically described adding a static mean t
erm to a zero mean fluctuation stationary process. The corresponding a
erodynamic alongwind force acting on a single degree of freedom (SDOF)
structure can be considered as a sum of three terms proportional to t
he mean wind velocity, to the product between mean and fluctuating par
t of the wind velocity and to the square power of the fluctuating wind
velocity, respectively. The latter term, often neglected in the liter
ature, is responsible for the non-Gaussian behaviour of the response.
In this paper a method for the evaluation of the stationary probabilit
y density function of SDOF structures subjected to non-Gaussian alongw
ind aerodynamic forces is presented. The method requires first the app
roximation of the non-Gaussian probability density function by means o
f a C-type Gram-Charlier series expansion; the coefficients of this se
ries are then evaluated using very simple linear algebraic relationshi
ps once the response statistical moments or, alternatively, the cumula
nts or the quasi-moments up to a fixed order have been determined. (C)
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