Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144

www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruc

Prediction of wind-induced fatigue on claddings of low

buildings
K. Suresh Kumar 1
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, FAGO, Postbus 513, Technical University of Eindhoven, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The
Netherlands
Received 30 September 1998; accepted 10 March 1999

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical approach for the prediction of wind-induced fatigue on claddings of low
buildings. The method uses digitally simulated wind pressure data, long-term wind climate of the region and
experimental fatigue characteristics data of claddings. The wind pressure data is analyzed using rainow technique
to establish the fatigue characteristics of pressure data. For low buildings located in temperate regions, the
accumulation of wind load cycles during the design life of cladding is estimated using a probabilistic approach by
integrating the long-term wind climate of the region with the fatigue characteristics of pressures. Finally, the wind-
induced fatigue damage is calculated utilizing Miner's rule and Goodman's method. Analytical predictions for the
case of roof claddings are validated by experimental measurements in a boundary layer wind tunnel. This approach
seems promising for a parametric investigation of wind-induced fatigue. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved.

Keywords: Cladding; Fatigue; Low building; Wind-induced

1. Introduction components against wind-induced fatigue, damages

Low buildings have generally been designed for sta-
tic wind loading. However, the failure at relatively low
wind speeds of building components, which are actu-
ally rated to sustain high wind speeds by static design,
has received wider attention more recently. Fatigue
due to repetitive sequences of high pressure uctu-
ations has been identied as the main reason for the
extensive damage to building components in many vio-
lent storms [1]. Despite the allowance provided in
some codes and standards for proof-testing of building
E-mail address: s.kumar@bwk.tue.nl (K. Suresh Kumar).
1
Formerly, Doctoral Student at School for Building, Con-
cordia University, Montreal, Canada.
during storms are still common. Continuing research
eorts would be useful in reducing wind-induced fati-
gue damages.
Several studies in the past showed that it is
reasonable to assume the pressure uctuations on
building envelopes as stationary random processes.
Therefore, the theory of stochastic processes can be
used to quantify such loadings. For instance, the
power spectra of the pressure uctuations may help
in the simulation of representative sample time his-
tories. Thereafter, an appropriate cycle counting
technique such as the rainow algorithm, and a
damage accumulation hypothesis such as Miner's
rule can be used to obtain fatigue damage estimates
[2]. Goodman's method can be employed to ap-
proximately account for the eect of mean load.

0045-7949/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 5 - 7 9 4 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 8 1 - 4
32 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144

Nomenclature

b probability parameter n number of cycles per hour per one m/s of

b width of building mean hourly wind velocity at building
cj Weibull constant height
Cprmax maximum pressure cycle range [NT] total load cycle distribution
D damage index pj probability of wind coming from a particu-
Dg damage due to Gaussian time series lar direction
Dng damage due to non-Gaussian time series Sk skewness
Et exponential random variable Smi mean pressure
hl lower eave height Sri pressure range associated with Smi
[H]
p cycle histogram Sth threshold pressure
Ik Fourier amplitude Su ultimate pressure of roong component
K intercept of the SN curve plotted on a T design life of cladding in hours
loglog graph T time
k total number of blocks t time (data points)
kj Weibull constant V mean hourly wind velocity at building
Ku kurtosis height
L geometric length Vi mean hourly wind velocity at building
l length of building height
m1 slope of the SN curve plotted on a loglog V design mean hourly wind velocity at build-
graph ing height corresponding to a specic return
N number of cycles period
n time series length DV small interval of velocity
Ni number of cycles to failure under Sri Yt skeleton signal
ni total number of cycles in the ith block of Zt simulated time series
constant pressure range, Sri fk Fourier phase
Nm number of pressure cycles in model scale s2 variance
Np number of pressure cycles in full-scale

Note that the conventional damage hypothesis can-
not take into account the sequence eects present in
actual wind pressure uctuations; ideally, the simu-
lated wind pressure uctuations can be applied
directly on a cladding with the help of facilities like
BRERWULF [3] in order to reproduce the actual
eects of wind pressure uctuations on cladding el-
ements.
Though the above mentioned procedure is simple, it
may have limitations which must be addressed before
it can successfully be used. For instance, the conven-
tional simulation of a time history based on power
spectra assumes that the process is Gaussian. However,
both Gaussian and non-Gaussian wind pressures have
been observed depending on tap location and wind
direction; mostly, non-Gaussian wind pressures are
observed on corner zones as well as on other separated
ow regions [4,5]. Therefore, the new simulation
scheme that can generate both Gaussian as well as
non-Gaussian pressure uctuations [68] and whose
eciency has been veried for a number of cases can
be used. This simulation scheme is basically developed
to generate only local pressure uctuations which gov-
ern the design of cladding as well as fasteners. The
evaluation of fatigue damage estimates using this simu-
lation scheme has been rst attempted in the frame-
work of the present study.
The main objective of this paper is, therefore, to
address the application of the simulated pressure uc-
tuations in predicting the fatigue behavior of cladding
using rainow algorithm, Miner's rule and Goodman's
method. The rate of fatigue damage accumulation
both under Gaussian and non-Gaussian wind pressure
loadings has been investigated. Furthermore, the long-
term wind climate is integrated with the simulated fati-
gue characteristics of cladding pressures to evaluate
total fatigue loading on cladding of low buildings
located in temperate climate regions. A few prelimi-
nary results were reported in Refs. [9,10].
2. Methodology: prediction of wind-induced fatigue on
claddings
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the prediction of
wind-induced fatigue. The methodology consists of
 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144
four major steps: (1) simulation of wind loading, (2)
estimation of wind load cycles, (3) estimation of total
fatigue loading, and (4) estimation of wind-induced
fatigue damage. Note that the long-term climate of the
location is an input in this approach to estimate total
fatigue loading. Another input that is required to com-
pute the damage caused by the total fatigue loading is
the constant amplitude test results (SN curve) of the
cladding material.
2.1. Simulation of wind loading
Time histories of Gaussian and non-Gaussian press-
ures on claddings can be generated with the help of
the following discrete Fourier transform equation [68]
X
n1 p
1
Zt n Ik eifk ei2pkt=n , t 0,1, . . . ,n 1
k0
where, Zt corresponds
p to time series, n corresponds to
time series length, Ik corresponds to Fourier ampli-
tude, fk corresponds to Fourier phase and the term
2pk=n is the integer multiple of the fundamental fre-
quency 2p=n known as Fourier frequency. Through
out this paper, the measured and simulated wind press-
ure uctuations are conveniently shown as the time
varying pressure coecients after dividing them by the
reference dynamic pressure at mean roof height. The
above simulation procedure, which is developed based
on several wind tunnel measurements, requires the
knowledge of both Fourier amplitude and phase in
order to simulate a time series. The amplitude part of
the time series can be constructed from measured
pressure spectra or tted empirical expressions for sub-
sequent simulations in a synthetic manner [6,7,11,12].
Unlike the amplitude part, the phase part of uctu-
ations cannot be modelled empirically or deterministi-
cally; however, stochastic models might be more
appropriate to represent its random nature. The phase
Fig. 1. Schematic of the prediction of wind-induced fatigue.
33
part of the Gaussian time series, represented by inde-
pendent uniformly distributed random numbers
between p and p, can be easily generated using com-
monly available algorithms [6]. However, in the case of
non-Gaussian time series, the phase part cannot be
replaced by independent uniform random numbers. A
simple Exponential Peak Generation (EPG) model is
proposed for the generation of skeleton signal from
which the required phase can be drawn [68]. The
EPG model takes the form,
Yt 0, with probability b
Et , with probability 1 b, 0RbR1 2
where, Yt corresponds to skeleton signal, b is the prob-
ability parameter that controls the intensity as well as
1 the frequency of spikes in the skeleton signal, and Et is
the exponential random variable. The model parameter
b has been estimated by minimizing the sum of the
squared errors in skewness and kurtosis. Many success-
ful simulations have been performed at various roof lo-
cations of many low buildings by using synthetic
spectra derived from several wind tunnel measurements
[6,11,12]. The same procedure has been adopted in this
study to simulate wind pressure uctuations on clad-
dings for fatigue evaluation.
2.2. Estimation of wind load cycles
One of the major tasks of fatigue analysis is to
establish a proper expression for the load and its re-
lationship with time or frequency. Generally, the loads
can be classied as random process or a single-ampli-
tude sine wave or a set of discrete amplitude sine
waves. For the latter two cases, the denition of cycle
is clear and the number of cycles can be determined by
simple counting based on the type of events to be
counted such as peaks, level crossings etc. However,
the wind pressure uctuations are random in nature
for which the term cycle is rather confusing and count-
ing of cycles is complex. The wind pressure uctu-
ations acting on claddings of low buildings are broad-
banded and sometimes non-Gaussian too [46]; there-
fore, the description as well as counting of load cycles
are not easy as in the case of a narrowband Gaussian
process. Common cycle counting techniques in use
today are peak, range, range-pair and rainow [13]. Of
these various methods, rainow has been shown to be
superior and yields the best fatigue life estimates, es-
pecially in the case of broadband non-Gaussian pro-
cess [13]. The rainow method can identify cycles as
closed hysteresis loops and can provide range and
mean values for each cycle. This method was recently
used by Xu [14] and Jancauskas et al. [15] to count
34 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144
cycles of wind-induced pressures. Moreover, the recent
standardization of this methodology by Amzallag et al.
[16] eliminates the presence of half cycles appearing in
the conventional rainow method. Therefore, this
method has been adopted in this study to count the
number of cycles present in pressure uctuations.
The rainow procedure applied in this investigation
consists of four major steps: (1) extraction of extrema,
(2) extraction of cycles, (3) treatment of residue and
(4) storing cycles. A basic treatment of the loading,
namely extraction of extrema, is required before the
rainow procedure can be applied. In step (1), peaks
as well as valleys of a pressure time series are identied
and stored as a sequence of extrema (S ). In step (2),
the cycles are extracted from the sequence of extrema
based on the rules explained in Ref. [16]. The cycle
extraction procedure starts with the rst four succes-
sive points (1, 2, 3, and 4) in a sequence of extrema
(S ). Thereafter, three consecutive ranges are deter-
mined: DS1 jS2 S1 j, DS2 jS3 S2 j and DS3
jS4 S3 j: If DS2 RDS1 and DS2 RDS3 , then: (1) the
cycle represented by its extreme values S2 and S3 is
extracted; (2) the two points S2 and S3 are discarded;
(3) the two remaining parts are connected to each
other. If not, the following point is considered and the
same procedure is applied using points 2, 3, 4 and the
new point, 5. The procedure is repeated until the last
point of the sequence is reached. The leftover points
(points that are not included in cycle extraction) con-
stitute the residue. Further, the cycles can be extracted
from a residue by adding the residue to itself and
applying the previous rainow technique to the
sequence composed of two residues, which is carried
out in step (3). The residue left out of this procedure is
identical to the rst one. In this way, the sequence can
be decomposed into cycles completely. Note that care
should be taken while joining the two residues.
Depending on their initial and nal relative values and
slopes, AFNOR A03-406 [17] provides some special
way of joining two residues. Note that the application
of rainow method will result in number of cycles cor-
responding to various mean and range values of press-
ures. It may be further necessary to quantify these
established cycles in a more comprehensive and sim-
plistic way so that it can be applied in practice, which
is carried out in step (4). Within this context, the mean
and range values of cycles are divided into certain
number of classes of constant width interval, and all
values (mean and range) located in a given class are
replaced by a representative value of this class (the
mean value is usually chosen). Finally, the number of
cycles corresponding to representative mean and range
of each class is stored in a matrix format for further
analysis. The outputs of this exercise are (1) maximum
pressure cycle range, Cprmax, (2) the total number of
cycles, N, and (3) the three-dimensional cycle histo-
gram, [H ] displaying the distribution of pressure cycles
over both cycle ranges and mean levels as a ratio of
the total number of cycles. The MATLAB functions
used for all the numerical applications in this paper
can be found in Ref. [6].
2.3. Estimation of total fatigue loading
Claddings are exposed to a spectrum of wind speeds
during their life time. Corresponding to the variation
of wind speed, the number of cycles presents in press-
ure uctuations vary as well. On the other hand, the
fatigue damage of cladding usually accumulates
throughout its life time depending on the material
type. Therefore, for the design of cladding correspond-
ing to a particular wind return period and specic life
time, such uctuations in wind speed have to be taken
into account. In this study, it is assumed that the
buildings are located in temperate climate regions
where the predominant source of high wind speeds is
large-scale and frequently occurring non-tropical
cyclone systems. The long-term wind climate of the
corresponding location is integrated with the simulated
fatigue characteristics of the pressure uctuations to
obtain the total fatigue loading using a probabilistic
approach similar to that of Xu [14]. The eect of wind
direction on the pressure cycle distribution is not con-
sidered in the present approach.
The probability that the mean hourly wind velocity
Vi at a particular location is in a small interval of
specied velocity DV is
 
DV DV
P Vi RVi RVi 1PVi DV 3
2 2
Consequently, for a given mean hourly wind velocity
at building height Vi ), the number of cycles at a tap
location Nvi has been estimated using
Nvi n Vi PVi DV T 4
where, n number of cycles per hour per one m/s of
mean hourly wind velocity at building height; and T
design life of cladding in hours. The distribution of the
cycles Nvi over all cycle ranges and mean levels can be
estimated by
Nvi Nvi H 5
where, H cycle histogram. Thereafter, the follow-
ing equation gives the total load cycle distribution of
the designated tap:
X
NT Nvi 6
i
where, the mean level and range of NT are expressed
 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144 35

2
as the ratio of design wind pressure, 12 r  V  Cprmax
(Cprmax is the maximum pressure cycle range and V is
the design mean hourly wind velocity at building
height corresponding to a specic return period). This
shows that the above summation is not straightforward
since each Nvi is a function of velocity, i.e., the cycle
mean levels and ranges are a function of velocity.
Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a proper sum-
mation according to the mean levels and ranges of
each Nvi ], which is pictorially shown in Fig. 2. In this
summation, each Nvi should be rearranged depending
on the mean level and range of each cell in this matrix
compared to the mean level and range of NT ]. For
instance, in case of low Vi , mean level and range of
the cells of Nvi may lie in the lower classes of the
mean level and ranges of NT ]. Therefore, all the cycles
in rearranged Nvi will be concentrated at few cells
and as a result the modied Nvi becomes smaller.
This is shown in Fig. 2, where the matrix (modied
Nvi ]) corresponding to lower Vi is smaller.
2.4. Estimation of wind-induced fatigue damage
Wind-induced fatigue damage, D, can be estimated
using the well-known damage accumulation hypothesis
of Miner's rule:
X
k
ni
D 7
i1
Ni
where, ni total number of wind load cycles in the ith
block of constant pressure range, Sri ; Ni number of
cycles to failure under Sri ; and k total number of
blocks. Failure occurs when D 1: More details about
the various models including Miner's rule that
designers use to predict fatigue under variable ampli-
tude and random loading are provided elsewhere [18].
The number of cycles to failure Ni can be obtained
from the constant amplitude SN curve of the corre-
sponding cladding material [19]. By applying Good-
man's simplication to estimate the pressure range
equivalent to nonzero mean pressure [2], the conven-
tional SN relationship becomes
2 3m1
Sri
Ni K4 , Sri rSth 8
Smi 5
1
Su
where, Sri pressure range associated with mean press-
ure Smi , Su ultimate pressure of cladding com-
ponents, Sth threshold pressure below which there is
no damage to cladding, and K and m1 are constants
representing intercept and slope, respectively of the
constant amplitude SN curve plotted on a loglog
graph. The parameters Su, K and m1 for any particular
cladding material can be established by carrying out
conventional constant amplitude tests [19].
3. Numerical examples: fatigue analysis of roof
claddings
In the past two decades, several researchers have
investigated wind-induced fatigue using either wind
tunnel or full-scale measurementssee Refs. [14,20].
Regarding analytical studies, Davenport [21] proposed
a method to estimate wind-induced fatigue damage by
assuming the wind loading as a broadband Gaussian
process. Lynn and Stathopoulos [22] improved the pre-
dictions by including the eect of non-normality by
using a mixed GaussianWeibull extremum model.
Later, Winterstein [23] derived Hermite moment
models to predict fatigue damage rates; these models
use moments (skewness and kurtosis) to form non-
Gaussian contributions. The developed ratio of actual
non-Gaussian to Gaussian damage rate g is
   p m1
E Dng pM m1 VR !
g     9
E Dg 2VR ! m1
!
2

where,
s

 1=2
4 1 h4 h~4 p 2 2
VR ; M 1 2h~3 6h~4
p

p
Ku 3 1 1:5Ku 3 1
h4 ; h~4 ;
Fig. 2. Pictorial representation of the summation in Eq. (6) 24 18
36 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144
Sk
h~3 p details are provided in Table 1. The simulations have
4 2 1 1:5Ku 3
where, Sk and Ku represent skewness and kurtosis
values of the time series and m1 corresponds to the
slope of the SN curve of the material under consider-
ation. The three inputs required to compute Eq. (9)
are Sk, Ku and m1. This model is based on the
assumption that the process is narrow-banded; how-
ever, according to Winterstein [23], the damage ratio is
not aected much by the bandwidth eects and, there-
fore, is usually conservative with respect to the rain-
ow counting assumption. Note that the previously
suggested analytical models are based on the peak
cycle counting method; this method is not suited for
counting cycles in the case of wind pressure uctu-
ations on low building roofs that are broad-banded
and non-Gaussian [5,6]. On the other hand, the use of
more accurate cycle counting method makes the pre-
sent approach promising for the prediction of wind-
induced fatigue with reasonable accuracy. This
approach also includes the eect of long-term wind cli-
mate of the location. Further, the present approach is
very useful to carry out an extensive parametric study.
3.1. Simulation of roof pressure uctuations
Fatigue characteristics of pressure uctuations have
been investigated at few locations over at and mono-
slope roof buildings although only two representative
examples have been provided. Pressure taps have been
selected in zones of very high energetic fatigue loading
of a 15 m high at roof building and the simulation
Table 1
Simulation details of time series
been carried out as previously discussed in Section 2.1
using the synthetic normalized spectra, SFNG1 [6,11,12];
this synthetic spectra is developed based on many wind
tunnel measured spectra over a at roof non-Gaussian
region and the details can be found in Refs. [6,11,12].
The values of probability parameter b that induce non-
normality are also provided. Statistics of the simulated
uctuations provided in Table 1 shows that both
samples are non-Gaussian and sample S50 is highly
non-Gaussian compared to S64. The importance of the
inherent non-normality of the samples in fatigue
damage accumulation can be demonstrated by compar-
ing the damage caused by the actual non-Gaussian
loading with that of the corresponding simulated load-
ing based on Gaussian assumption. Within this con-
text, Gaussian counterparts for both cases are also
simulated using their corresponding spectra.
3.2. Fatigue characteristics of roof pressures
The number of data in each record of the wind-tun-
nel measured and the corresponding simulated pressure
time histories is 8192, corresponding to a duration of
16.384 s in model scale. The results of rainow method
in terms of the maximum pressure cycle range
(Cprmax), the number of load cycles in model scale
(Nm), and full-scale (Np) of the corresponding time his-
tories are listed in Table 2. While applying rainow al-
gorithm, no hysteresis threshold limit has been used to
eliminate small cycles since it was decided to use such
threshold in the estimation of total fatigue loading and
corresponding damage. Note that each sample of
 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144 37

Table 2 depicts the rainow results of the simulated

non-Gaussian time series (NG), their Gaussian (G)
counterparts and the corresponding measured non-
Gaussian time series (M). As expected, the maximum
pressure cycle range of simulated non-Gaussian time
history is greater than its corresponding Gaussian
counterpart; however, the dierence between the two
depends on the intensity of non-normality. For
instance, the dierence between the maximum pressure
cycle range corresponding to the simulated non-Gaus-
sian time series and its Gaussian counterpart in case of
S64 is less than that of S50 since sample S64 is not
highly non-Gaussian (see Table 1). On the other hand,
the Cprmax of simulated non-Gaussian time series is
dierent from the corresponding measured non-Gaus-
sian time series. This is because the simulations are
based on generalized spectra of that zone and more-
over, Cprmax is sensitive to peaks which vary from Fig. 3. Cycle histogram of S50 (simulated).
sample to sample. Note that the total numbers of
cycles in model scale corresponding to both samples
are close, though they usually vary according to tap lo- is time, V is mean hourly wind velocity at building
cations. height, and the indices p and m stand for prototype
The number of cycles corresponding to model scale and model, respectively. The number of cycles per
has to be converted to full-scale for actual damage esti- hour per one m/s of hourly mean wind velocity at
mation. Additional information required for this con-  is evaluated with the help of
building height, Np n,
version is the relationship between the wind speed and corresponding Nm's and by taking Lm =Lp 1=400,
the number of cycles. In the present study, the simi- Vp 1 m/s, Vm 5:5 m/s, Tp 3600 s, and Tm
larity equation associated with the Strouhal number 16:384 s; n corresponding to various cases is provided
which provides the linear relationship between number in Table 2. Later, the total pressure cycles in full-scale
of cycles and wind speed [14,15,22] has been used to corresponding to a particular wind velocity for a
evaluate the number of cycles per hour per one m/s of period of time in hours can be evaluated by multiply-
mean hourly wind velocity at building height in full- ing Np by the corresponding wind velocity and period.
scale (Np) provided in Table 2. The number of cycles Figs. 36 display typical cycle histograms of the
in both full-scale and model scale wind pressures, simulated and measured samples. The vertical axis
counted by the rainow method, are expected to ap- shows the ratios of the number of cycles in each cell to
proximately satisfy the similarity equation, the total number of cycles. The two horizontal axes
Lm Vp Tp
Np Nm 10
Lp Vm Tm

where, N is number of cycles, L is geometric length, T

Table 2
Typical results of rainow counting method1

Sample Type Cprmax Nm Np n

S50 NG 5.30 1803 180

G 4.25 1882 188
M 4.40 1974 197
S64 NG 3.12 1817 181
G 3.01 1882 188
M 3.70 1983 198

1
NGsimulated (non-Gaussian), Gsimulated (Gaus-
sian), Mmeasured. Fig. 4. Cycle histogram of S50 (measured).
38 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144
Fig. 5. Cycle histogram of S64 (simulated).
refer to the range and mean level of cycles expressed
as a ratio of the maximum pressure cycle range of the
corresponding simulated time history obtained from
rainow counting method. Low cycle ranges have been
included. Clearly, the low level cycle ranges corre-
sponding to low cycle mean levels are lled with more
cycles and this is typical for most cases; however, var-
ious patterns of distribution of cycles have been noted
depending on the location of the tap on the roof and
the wind direction. For instance, compared with
sample S64 (Figs. 5 and 6), the cycles corresponding to
sample S50 (Figs. 3 and 4) are more or less concen-
trated on the cells of lowest mean cycle levels. The
cycles of S64 are more uniformly distributed compared
with those of S50. It is also noted that the maximum
Fig. 6. Cycle histogram of S64 (measured).
Fig. 7. Cycle histogram of S50 (simulated, Gaussian).
pressure cycle range of a time series is consistently
greater than the maximum pressure cycle mean level
for the cases studied. In general, the cycle histogram of
simulated pressure uctuations corresponding to S50
and S64 are similar to those of the corresponding
measured pressure uctuations. This similarity of cycle
histograms and the number of cycles between the simu-
lated and the measured cases indicate that simulated
pressure uctuations can be used to determine fatigue
characteristics of wind pressures on roofs. The cycle
histogram and the number of cycles, together with the
information on long-term wind climate, can be used to
determine the total fatigue loading on roof cladding.
Furthermore, the cycle histograms of the correspond-
ing simulated Gaussian time histories are shown in
Fig. 8. Cycle histogram of S64 (simulated, Gaussian).
 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144
Table 3
Constant amplitude test results of typical roong sheets
Type of roong K m1 Su (kPa)
Trapezoidal roong 6:248  105 3.008 9.2
Ribbed roong 2:088  105 2.531 7.6
Figs. 7 and 8. The cycle histogram for both cases
obtained using Gaussian assumption is certainly dier-
ent from those of the actual non-Gaussian cases shown
in Figs. 3 and 5. Note that the cycles are more or less
uniformly distributed under the Gaussian assumption.
Though the similarity between the simulated and
measured cases have been shown in terms of distri-
bution of cycles, it may be of interest to show the com-
parison between the damage caused by simulated and
measured uctuations to a roof system. To demon-
strate the fatigue damage caused by the pressure uc-
tuations, two common roof types used in Australia
have been chosen from Xu [19]; their constant ampli-
tude test results are provided in Table 3 The simulated
as well as measured pressure uctuations have been
applied to the trapezoidal roong and the correspond-
ing fatigue mean life time of the roof cladding is esti-
mated. Fatigue mean life time refers to the expected
life time until the damage reaches the failure criterion
D 1; this is estimated simply by inverting the damage
index calculated for a specic wind velocity blowing
for an hour. The results are provided in Fig. 9. Note
the reasonable similarity between the measured and
simulated cases which is encouraging. One of the ad-
Fig. 9. Fatigue life time of trapezoidal roof under simulated
and measured wind loading.
39
vantages of the current simulation methodology in fati-
gue analysis is its exibility in carrying out a
parametric study. For instance, the eect of variance
s2 of pressure uctuations on fatigue mean life time
of the roof is shown in Fig. 10 with variance ranging
from 0.1 to 0.3. For all simulations, the normalized
spectrum SFNG1 was multiplied with dierent variance
to obtain the actual power spectrum. Clearly, when the
intensity of uctuations (variance) increases, the fati-
gue mean life time decreases. Further, note that as the
wind velocity increases, the fatigue life time decreases.
Overall, this section demonstrates the potential of the
simulation methodology to represent fatigue character-
istics of roof pressures.
3.3. Integrating long-term wind climate
For demonstration purposes, it is assumed that the
building is exposed to temperate climate of Montreal,
Canada. The design mean hourly wind speed, corre-
sponding to a 50-year return period V  is used for all
computations; the design mean hourly wind speed at
building height in an open country terrain exposure is
estimated to be 26 m/s based on NBCC [24]. The Wei-
bull distribution has been adopted in this study for
describing the probability density of mean hourly wind
velocity PVi ). Considering the mean hourly wind
velocity at building site in Montreal from all 16 direc-
tions, the Weibull probability density function PVi
has been estimated using
X16
kj k 1 kj
PVi pj kj V i j eVi =cj 11
j1 cj
Fig. 10. Eect of variance of pressure uctuations on fatigue
life time of trapezoidal roof.
40 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144

where, pj probability of wind coming from a particu- number of cycles are concentrated at both low cycle
lar direction and constants cj and kj determine the ranges and low cycle mean levels. As cycle ranges
shape of the distribution; the corresponding values of or cycle mean levels become larger, the number of
the parameters shown in Table 4 are taken from Wu cycles becomes smaller. Another interesting feature
[25]. of the total load cycle distribution is that the maxi-
While estimating the total fatigue loading with mum number of load cycles for a given range is
respect to a given wind return period and design life, approximately located at a mean level which is
the threshold cycle range in all computations has been half of the cycle range; this was also observed by Xu
kept initially at 5% of the design wind pressure; this [14]. This property is discussed in detail in the next
was also done by Xu [14] to eliminate small cycles section.
which contribute little to fatigue damage. However, it
was later decided to use a 4% of the global maximum 3.3.1. Mean levels of load cycles
design wind pressure corresponding to the maximum As previously mentioned, the total cycles are jointly
pressure cycle range as the hysteresis threshold in distributed over both cycle ranges and mean levels.
order to have a reasonable comparison of number of Though it is ideal to directly use the total load cycle
cycles at various taps. The global maximum design distribution for fatigue tests, such an approach may be
2
wind pressure out of the cases considered is 12 r  V  expensive and inconvenient. Therefore, it may be
2
Cprmax 0:65  26  5:3=1000 2:37 kPa, which cor- necessary to simplify the total load cycle distributions
responds to the design mean hourly wind speed of 26 for practical applications. The typical nature of total
m/s at building height and the largest pressure cycle load cycle distributions noted in Figs. 11 and 12 indi-
range of 5.3 of simulated time series of S50see Table cate that there is a possibility for further simplication
2; the threshold used in all computations was 0.1 kPa. of the loading.
Admittedly, nding an appropriate threshold limit for An attempt has been made to clearly show the con-
fatigue design considerations is debatable, since such a centration of cycles in a given range. Figs. 13 and 14
limit is a function of the type of cladding material. display the concentration of cycles in the case of
Depending on the threshold limit, the number of cycles sample S50 for the Montreal design hourly mean wind
as well as the estimated damage can increase or speed of 26 m/s and a design life of 50 years. The hori-
decrease. zontal axis refers to the ratio of cycle range to the de-
Figs. 11 and 12 show the total load cycle distri- sign wind pressure, while the vertical axis refers to the
bution for S50 and S64. Both cycle ranges and cycle ratio of cycle mean level to the design wind pressure.
mean levels are expressed as a ratio of the correspond- The number in a cell is a proportion of the cycles in
ing design wind pressure. The design life of roof (T ) is the cell to the total number of cycles in the same range
taken as 50 years. Figs. 11 and 12 show that a large in which the cell lies (i.e., the total number of cycles in
the column in which this cell lies). The plus sign in a
cell indicates that the proportion of this cell is less
Table 4 than 10% but more than zero. The solid oblique line
Weibull constants based on meteorological records for Mon- is a particular case in which the cycle mean level is
treal, after Wu [25] always half of the given cycle range. Surprisingly, for
a given cycle range, especially for cycle ranges of
i Sector pj (%) kj cj (m/s) high values, most of the cycles in the corresponding
range are concentrated in the cells around this solid
1 N 4.10 1.51 3.34
oblique line. This result shows the possibility of sim-
2 NNE 8.10 1.05 3.11
3 NE 7.46 1.30 4.47
plifying the fatigue wind loading matrix; however,
4 ENE 2.62 1.69 4.29 further work concerning this issue is required before
5 E 2.21 1.62 3.23 drawing any conclusions. The similarity between
6 ESE 2.42 1.79 3.69 simulated and measured cases shown in Figs. 13 and
7 SE 4.45 1.81 4.35 14, respectively demonstrates once again the suit-
8 SSE 5.07 1.76 4.33 ability of the proposed approach for wind-induced
9 S 3.39 1.57 3.14 fatigue life prediction.
10 SSW 5.39 1.62 3.80
11 SW 11.74 1.26 4.17
12 WSW 14.07 1.40 5.06 3.4. Fatigue damage accumulation
13 W 11.81 1.45 5.02
14 WNW 5.73 1.83 3.10
15 NW 3.59 1.67 3.97
Using Miner's rule and the constantamplitude SN
16 NNW 2.83 1.43 3.07 curves, damage D has been estimated using Eq. (7) as
follows: the estimated total cycles corresponding to
 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144 41

Fig. 11. Total load cycle distribution for S50 (simulated).

each mean and range values, ni 's, (Figs. 11 and 12) are
divided by the corresponding number of cycles to fail-
ure, Ni 's, obtained from the known behavior of roof
cladding under constant amplitude loading represented
by Eq. (8). The ratio corresponding to each mean and
range values represents an index of contribution of the
corresponding pressure cycles towards damage. There-
after, the ratios corresponding to each mean and range
level are summed up to obtain the damage index, D.
The estimated damage indices are provided in Table 5
where Dng and Dg represent damage due to non-Gaus-
sian process and Gaussian process, respectively. Based
on the calculations, the ribbed roof fails under the
loading given in Fig. 11; however, the roof does not

Fig. 12. Total load cycle distribution for S64 (simulated).

42 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144

Fig. 13. Concentration of cycles of S50 (simulated).

Fig. 14. Concentration of cycles of S50 (measured).

fail under the Gaussian assumption. In both cases ana-

evaluation of wind-induced fatigue on claddings of
lyzed, the damage indices corresponding to Gaussian
low buildings. This approach essentially consists of
assumption are smaller than those of the actual non-
(1) simulation of Gaussian or non-Gaussian pressure
Gaussian cases; this implies that the roof cladding
uctuations on claddings using the recently proposed
designed based on Gaussian assumption is expected to
simulation scheme, (2) reduction of time varying load-
fail prematurely. Since sample S50 is highly non-Gaus-
ing into pressure cycles using the standardized rain-
sian compared to sample S64, the corresponding indi-
ow technique, (3) integration of the long-term wind
ces are also higher for sample S50. Furthermore, the
climate with the simulated fatigue characteristics of
ratio Dng/Dg decreases as the non-normality
pressures to obtain total fatigue loading on claddings
(expressed, say by kurtosis) decreases; this ratio for
of buildings located in temperate climate regions,
sample S64 is consistently lower than that of sample
and (4) evaluation of fatigue damage using Miner's
S50 irrespective of the type of roof. The results of the
rule and Goodman's method. Numerical examples
earlier study also clearly indicated that the non-nor-
and the validation of the predictions using wind tun-
mality of the wind pressure uctuations can signi-
nel measurements are provided for the case of roof
cantly increase the rate of fatigue damage
claddings.
accumulation and can result in non-conservative fati-
The results clearly show that the fatigue character-
gue life estimates if its eects are not accounted for
istics of digitally simulated roof pressure uctuations
[10]. Moreover, for the same loading, this ratio for tra-
agree fairly well with those of the wind tunnel
pezoidal roong is always higher than that of ribbed
roong. It is clear from Eqs. (7) and (8) that the ratio
Dng/Dg is independent of the intercept of the SN
curve (K ), but depends on the slope of the SN curve Table 5
(m1) of the cladding. Note that as m1 increases, Dng/Dg Estimated damage indices
increases. Finally, Table 5 presents the ratio Dng/Dg
Dng Dg Dng/Dg
estimated using the analytical expression (Eq. (9))
suggested by Winterstein [23]. Interestingly, these esti-
Dng Dg Present study Winterstein [23]
mated ratios are closer to those predicted by the pre-
sent study. Trapezoidal roong
S50 0.25 0.14 1.78 1.91
S64 0.063 0.05 1.26 1.27
4. Conclusions Ribbed roong
S50 1.05 0.67 1.57 1.51
S64 0.33 0.27 1.20 1.17
This paper presents an analytical approach for the
 K. Suresh Kumar / Computers and Structures 75 (2000) 3144
measurements. This observation justies the employ-
ment of simulated pressure uctuations in this
approach replacing the traditional measured pressure
uctuations. Signicant inuences of long-term wind
climate on fatigue loading has been noted; the accumu-
lated fatigue cycles are quite high. It appears that the
number of cycles increases as the wind return period
and the design life of cladding increase. It is also
observed that for a given cycle range, the mean levels
of cycles are mostly concentrated around half of the
corresponding cycles range. Furthermore, the inu-
ences of non-normality as well as strength of cladding
on fatigue damage accumulation are also demon-
strated. The results clearly indicate the signicant eect
of non-normality of the wind pressure uctuations in
increasing the rate of fatigue damage accumulation.
Overall, the prediction of wind-induced fatigue on
claddings using the proposed approach is promising.
The eect of wind direction on the cycle distribution,
the suitability of the Miner's rule in damage estimation
and the total fatigue loading on claddings subjected to
both cyclonic and temperate climate wind should be
investigated further.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Dr. T. Stathopoulos of
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada for the gui-
dance and encouragement oered during the study on
which the paper is based.
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