Wind Loading of Structures, Third Edition

John D. Holmes

Preference :

Wind loading competes with seismic loading as the dominant environmental loading for structures. They have produced roughly equal amounts of damage over a long time period, although large damaging earthquakes occur less often than severe wind storms. On almost every day of the year, a severe wind storm is happening somewhere on Earth – although many storms are small and localized. In the tropical oceans, the most severe of all wind events – tropical cyclones (including hurricanes and typhoons) – are generated. When these storms make landfall on populated coastlines, their effects can be devastating. In this introductory chapter, the meteorology of severe wind storms – gales produced by large extra-tropical depressions – tropical cyclones and downbursts, squall lines, and tornadoes associated with thunderstorms, is explained, including the expected horizontal variation in wind speed during these events.