Thunderstorm characteristics of importance to wind engineering Part II: Profiles, gust factors and other observations

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. Vertical wind components and profiles, gust factors and variability of thunderstorms are compared with SBL data. Vertical ramp-up profiles show evolutionary behavior while maximum gust profiles suggest differences from the SBL. Gust factors for ramp-up events show that the Durst curve should not be used for averaging times greater than 60 s and can be fit to a cubic polynomial. Thunderstorm events also display considerable variability, which may affect wind load standards.

Citation

Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Thunderstorm, Non-Stationary, Gust Factor, Variability, Wind Profile

Citation

Lombardo, F. , Smith, D. , Schroeder, J. and Mehta, K. (2011), Thunderstorm characteristics of importance to wind engineering Part II: Profiles, gust factors and other observations, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics (Accessed October 13, 2025)