Thunderstorm characteristics of importance in wind engineering Part I: Temporal scales and turbulence

Published

February 23, 2011

Author(s)

Franklin T. Lombardo, Douglas Smith, John Schroeder, Kishor Mehta

Abstract

The idea that wind is wind allows statistics for wind and pressure collected in wind tunnels to be used in wind load standards. Statistics collected in wind tunnels are based on inherently stationary data and verified with field data that is stationary in the boundary layer (SBL). Some of the most extreme and important events for wind loading (e.g. thunderstorms) display non-stationary wind and pressure characteristics. Thunderstorms are therefore assumed to have the same properties as the SBL, although previous studies have shown differences. Wind data from thunderstorms, some of which displayed rapid wind speed increases (i.e. ramp-up ) were collected at Texas Tech University and from field campaigns. General characteristics of the ramp-up events are detailed. Time scales and turbulence are compared with SBL data. Analysis revealed averaging times of 15 s - 60 s can be used in SBL comparison. Shorter time scales than typically used in wind engineering were found for ramp-up events. Ramp-up turbulence in the frequency domain was similar to the SBL and turbulence intensities fell within the range of the SBL at 15 s - 60 s averaging times.

Citation

Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Thunderstorm, Non-Stationary, Turbulence, Time Scale

Citation

Lombardo, F. , Smith, D. , Schroeder, J. and Mehta, K. (2011), Thunderstorm characteristics of importance in wind engineering Part I: Temporal scales and turbulence, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=907624 (Accessed June 4, 2026)

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