Modeling and analysis of quadratic term in the wind effects on structures

Historically, the quadratic drag term containing the square of the fluctuating velocity component has been often ignored in analyses of wind-excited structures. This paper addresses a technique to model the contribution of this term to the system response extremes. Among the topics covered are the development of a non-Gaussian gust loading factor via moment-based Hermite transformation. A frequency domain analysis approach involving Volterra theory and higher-order response cumulant calculations from direct integrations or Kac-Siegert technique is employed to obtain information needed for this transformation.