Abstract

Abstract. Wind gusts can have destructive effects on many structures and objects deemed valuable to humans. The aviation industry, for example, views gusts as a major hazard. Their destructive effect is proportional to the momentum that a specific gust imposes onto an object. The actual definition of a gust has a strong influence on how its impact can be quantified. Existing gust definitions, however, are largely based on fixed parameters describing shape requirements and thresholds and are often developed only for specific use cases. These gust definitions do not provide a direct link to the physical impact a particular gust has on a structure or object. The overall goal of this study is to provide such a direct link. The application of a wavelet-analysis to a turbulence-resolving wind velocity signal allows for the localization of signal amplitudes in the period as well as in the time domain. In this paper, we use wavelet-analysis in order to develop a straight-forward method of deriving information about gusts from a wind velocity signal. In order to define what a particular gust might be, we suggest the specification of a characteristic period and amplitude in the time-domain. We define a generic gust as a section of a wind velocity signal, where the wavelet-analysis detects that characteristic amplitude to be matched or exceeded within that characteristic period. The characteristic amplitudes and periods are generic and span a two-dimensional space of generic gust definitions. The method can be applied to turbulence resolving simulation data as well as high-resolution wind velocity measurement data. It can detect gusts of any shape, it is unbiased regarding any specific use case and invariant to changes of the mean wind. We provide a detailed description of the method, its capabilities and demonstrate its application to high resolution wind velocity measurement data.

Highlights

  • Wind gusts are generally considered an aviation hazard, as they can cause loads on the aircraft structure that potentially exceeds its load limits and may lead to structural damage

  • The overall goal of this study is to provide a direct link between a gust and its physical impact using a generic gust definition

  • The range of amplitudes and periods can be chosen depending on the load limit envelope of a specific object, in order to investigate if a wind velocity signal contains gusts, that are potentially dangerous for that specific object

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Summary

Introduction

Wind gusts are generally considered an aviation hazard, as they can cause loads on the aircraft structure that potentially exceeds its load limits and may lead to structural damage. Suggest specific criteria that need to be met in order to detect a specific gust in a turbulence-resolving wind velocity signal In these methods a gust is generally defined as a portion of the signal, where the wind velocity starts from a local minimum, exceeds a certain value at a local maximum and falls again below a certain value, all within a fixed time interval. They usually consist of fixed parameter sets describing shape requirements, thresholds and duration but do not provide information about how the amplitudes the signal consists of, are localized in the period domain and fail to create a direct link between a gust and its physical impact on a structure or object. Note that such gust load limit envelopes can be computed for any other object or structure like a wind turbine, a building or even a pedestrian

A gust definition based on the wavelet transform
Gust detection using wavelet analysis
Identifying dangerous gusts
Findings
Conclusions

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