A peak factor for non-Gaussian response analysis of wind turbine tower

Equivalent static wind load evaluation formulas considering the dynamic effects based on peak factor were proposed to estimate the design wind load on the wind turbine tower in complex terrain. The non-linear part of wind pressure was considered to estimate the mean wind loads. The peak factor based on a non-Gaussian assumption was derived to estimate the non-linearity of wind load, especially in the high turbulence intensity. The formula of the peak factor is simplified to a function of the third order moment (skewness) considering the spatial correlation of wind velocity, the resonance response and the background response. The proposed methods showed favorable agreements with dynamic wind response analysis by FEM. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.