On extraction of time-varying mean wind speed from wind record based on stationarity index

Abstract

We have proposed in a previous study a non-stationary wind model to represent the typhoon record as a summation of a time-varying mean wind speed (TVM) and a stationary turbulence. This note further suggests a quantitative scheme, rather than the previous qualitative method, to find the best TVM for any given wind record. Trial TVMs are first extracted from the wind record by a data-processing technique named empirical mode decomposition. For each TVM, its corresponding turbulent component is computed by removing the TVM from the original wind record, and the degree of stationarity of the turbulence component is checked. The best TVM is taken as the one that leads to the maximum degree of stationarity. The degree of stationarity of turbulence is quantified by two indicators: β the ratio of horizontal wind variability and wind speed; and γ the ratio of friction velocity at different Reynolds averaging periods. The applicability of the suggested scheme is validated with 550 typhoon and 3300 monsoon records of 10 minute duration and at different measurement heights. Threshold values for the two stationary indicators β and γ are determined using field measurements and their sensitivities to the Reynolds averaging periods are discussed. Observations in this study demonstrate that the suggested scheme is proper for finding the TVM of a wind record. For a stationarity quantification of 10 minute duration record, the γ indicator with 30 second Reynolds averaging period is recommended.