Reliability-Based Analysis and Design of Wide-Span Structures under Stochastic Wind Loads

Abstract

AbstractThe objective of this paper is to present a reliability-based method for structural analysis and design under stochastic wind loads so that nominal wind pressure coefficients p′* (associated with the covariance matrix Cp′) can be defined for use in the context of the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) method. The novelty of the formulation presented in this paper is based on the approach used to solve the problem of considering simultaneously the wind load as random variables (the maximum mean wind pressure outside the influence of the structure on the life cycle of the facility) and the wind load as a space and time random process defined by the covariance matrix Cp′ (i.e., a second moment approximation for the non-Gaussian process) and the peak factor q. The nominal wind pressure coefficients p′, associated with the covariance matrix Cp′, are defined so that the three sources of wind randomness can be independently considered: (1) the randomness in the peak factor q (which depends on the m...