Orthogonal expansion of Gaussian wind velocity field and PDEM-based vibration analysis of wind-excited structures

An effective procedure for simulation of random wind velocity field by the orthogonal expansion method is proposed in this paper. The procedure starts with decomposing the fluctuating wind velocity field into a product of a stochastic process and a random field, which represent the time property and the spatial correlation property of wind velocity fluctuations, respectively. By an innovative orthogonal expansion technology, the stochastic process for wind velocity fluctuations may be represented as a finite sum of deterministic time functions with corresponding uncorrelated random coefficients. Similarly, the random field can be expressed as a combination form with only a few random variables by the Karhunen-Loeve decomposition. This approach actually simulates the wind velocity field with stochastic functions other than methods such as spectral representation and proper orthogonal decomposition. In the second part of the paper, the probability density evolution method (PDEM) is employed to predict the stochastic dynamic response of structures subjected to wind excitations. In the POEM, a completely uncoupled one-dimensional partial differential equation, the generalized density evolution equation, plays a central role in governing the stochastic responses of structures. The solution of this equation will give rise to instantaneous probability density function of the responses. Finally, the accuracy and effectiveness of the approach in representing the random wind velocity field and POEM-based dynamic response of wind-excited building are investigated. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.