Dynamic response analysis of crosswind-excited tower-like structures: with special reference to extreme value estimation with limited response samples

The dominance of crosswind response in tower-like structures, such as wind turbine towers, tall buildings, solar towers, and so forth, is typically attributed to the substantial aero-elastic effect resulting from the interaction between wind and the structure. To evaluate the reliability of crosswind-excited tower-like structures, an accurate and robust estimation of their dynamic response is desired. When the response sample is limited, rare extremes with low probabilities of exceedance can hardly be captured by the limited extreme sample, so this approach may fail to give an accurate and robust estimation of extreme response. By extrapolating the crossing rate using the Poisson assumption, this study proposes a reliable method for estimating the extreme response of tower-like structures subjected to crosswind excitation. The first step involves conducting Monte Carlo simulations of a tower-like structure subject to crosswind excitation. This simulation is performed to verify the suggested methodology, and the model incorporates a generalized Van der Pol aerodynamic damping to account for the aero-elastic effect. Subsequently, the suggested methodology is implemented to estimate the extreme response, wherein the response samples are obtained through a wind tunnel test. The present approach has been demonstrated to yield accurate and robust estimations of both Gaussian- and hardening non-Gaussian response processes, even when the available response samples are limited.