A Method for Estimation of Extreme Values of Wind Pressure on Buildings Based on the Generalized Extreme-Value Theory

By analysis of statistical characteristics and probability density distribution of extreme values of wind pressures on the surfaces of a typical low-rise building model and a typical high-rise building model, characteristics of the commonly used methods for estimating the extreme-values of wind pressure are discussed. The relationship between the parameters of the extreme value distribution of wind pressure and its observation length is then deduced based on the generalized extreme value theory and the independence of the observed extreme values. A new method for estimating the extreme values is developed by dividing the time history sample of the wind pressure into several subsamples. The extreme values of the wind pressure coefficients calculated with the present method and those with the commonly used methods are compared and the results indicate that the present method can estimate the extreme values of non-Gaussian wind pressure more accurately than the commonly used ones.