ICCBT2008

Determination of Basic Wind Speed for Building Structures in Oman

S. S. S. Almaawali*, Universiti Sains Malaysia, MALAYSIA T. A. Majid, Universiti Sains Malaysia, MALAYSIA A.S.Yahya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, MALAYSIA ABSTRACT As a civil engineer one should consider very accurately all loads affecting structures. One of the very important loads acting on structures is the wind loads, whose determination is important to decide the degree of safety and economy of the structures. In past civil engineers do not usually consider the loads of winds, but during the recent years since the trend to build higher and lighter structures the wind loads became a significant factor affecting the structural design. In Oman the usual practice is to adopt design recommendations of foreign codes of practice, which can be quite irrelevant, due to differences in climatic and geographic conditions. The wind forces as well as the wind pressure acting on the roofs, walls and claddings are based on the wind speed Vs. This basic wind speed will have a return period of 50 years as most buildings are designed for a life period of 50 years. The objective of this study is to obtain the basic wind speed which will be used to design building structures in Oman. Wind data were taken from 10 meteorological stations all around Oman, these data were analyzed statistically using Gumbel and Gringorten methods to determine the basic wind speed, from which wind pressure affecting a typical building can be calculated easily. Keywords: Basic wind speed, Gumbel method, Gringorten method, probability of exceedance, reduced variate.

*Correspondence Author: Mr. Said Saif Salim Almaawali, Universiti Sains, Malaysia. Tel: +6045996282, Fax: +6045996282. E-mail: ssmauly@hotmail.com

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

Determination of Basic Wind Speed for Building Structures in Oman

1.

INTRODUCTION

Wind loads are one of the important loads affecting structures especially for tall or light weight buildings. A better understanding of wind characteristics and wind structures interaction is required to design safe and economical structures. Wind loads are usually specified as a pressure on the windward face of a building and suction on leeward face due to the predicted maximum wind velocity. However the problem of predicting a maximum wind velocity remains and this is critical since wind pressure varies with velocity square. Wind loads have become particularly significant because of increasing number of high-rise buildings. Other factors have also contributed to importance of wind in design: lightweight low-slope roofs, curtain wall construction and appearance of special structures having "aerodynamic shapes." Some tall buildings that extend into regions of high wind velocity have swayed excessively in strong winds. Wind forces have blown off improperly anchored lightweight roofs, and roofing materials have been lifted by high local suctions and eventually peeled from large areas of roofs.

2.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

As the trend to build higher and lighter buildings in most cities, the wind loads must be taken into consideration during design stage. The wind loads depend on the basic wind speed Vs, and the value of Vs must be determined based on the climatic condition of each country. In Oman raw data of wind speed measured by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Meteorology Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication, with 24 meteorological stations spread all over the Sultanate of Oman [1]. These data were left unstudied for many years from the structural engineering point of view. These data can be used to determine the basic wind speed Vs which can be used the building design in Oman against wind loads. This dissertation is the first step to determine the wind loads in Oman which will be taken into consideration when structural experts in Oman decide to introduce Omani code of practice for wind loads on buildings. The objectives of this paper are to analyze statistically raw wind data for Oman from Department of Meteorology for 10 stations using Gumbel and Gringorten methods and to determine the basic wind speed for Oman.

3. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Wind is known to be a random phenomenon, so its properties must be defined statistically. In order to analyze the effects of wind on structures, wind and response phenomena must be measured and recorded concurrently for some period of time. In this research the characteristics of wind speed data in Oman have been studied. Wind data were analyzed statistically using Gumbel method and Gringorten method [2-4], thus basic wind speed for 10
236 ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

S. S. S. Almaawali et. al.

stations in Oman has been determined. In this research the total annual wind speed data is 225, and the total monthly wind speed data is 2556 for all 10 stations. There are many methods usually used to predict basic wind speed. In the Literature review five methods was discussed; they are Gumbel method, Modified Gumbel method, Gringorten method, Peaks Over Threshold method and method of Independent Storms. Only two of them were used in this research ( Gumbel and Gringorten ) to predict the basic wind speed for Oman. These two methods are commonly used by previous researchers and briefly described here: 3.1 Gumble method

The Gumbel method involves 5 main steps for processing of wind speed data: Step1: Data is ranked in order from smallest to largest: 1, 2, 3, , m, to N Step 2: Probability of non-exceedence , p according to: p=m/ (N+1) Step 3: Reduced variate is formed from: r=-ln(-lnp) (2) (1)

Step 4: Wind speed is plotted against y, and a line of best fit is drawn, usually by means of 1 linear regression, u = mode = intercept of the line, = slope of the line a Step 5: For large values of return period a simple equation can be used to determine extreme wind speed [5]. 1 ( 3) UR= u + ln R a 3.2 Gringorten method

Almost similar to Gumbel method, there are 5 main steps for processing of wind speed data using Gringorten method. The only difference is in step 2 where the equation to get the value of p is given by equation (4). Step1: Data is ranked in order from smallest to largest: 1, 2, 3, .., m,..to N Step 2: Probability of non-exceedence , p according to: p=(m-0.44)/(N+0.12) Step 3: Reduced variate is formed from equation 2: r = - ln ( -ln p )

( 4)

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

237

Determination of Basic Wind Speed for Building Structures in Oman

Step 4: Wind speed is plotted against y , and a line of best fit is drawn , usually by means of 1 linear regression , u = mode = intercept of the line , = slop of the line a Step 5: For large values of return period we can use again equation 3 to determine extreme wind speed: 1 (UR = u + ln R) a

4.

CHARACTERISTICS OF WIND SPEED DATA IN OMAN

In order to have a better understanding about wind speed data in Oman; their characteristics have been studied. In this section these characteristics were determined for both annual and monthly wind speed. 4.1 Annual wind speed data

SPSS software has been used to analyze the data taken from 10 stations in Oman in order to determine the characteristics of wind speed data. The summary of the descriptive statistical analysis are shown in Table 1: Table 1: Descriptive statistical analysis for annual wind speed data for 10 stations

Table 1 shows that the minimum mean (20.3m/s) of annual wind speed was in Seeb airport station where is the maximum mean (29m/s) was in Nizwa station. The maximum wind speed recorded in Nizwa (41 m/s) and the minimum was in Sohar (10 m/s). The skewness was all > 0 except for two stations; Sur and Buraimi (-0.1, -0.034 respectively). These two values are not differing much far from zero so it can be classified as normal distribution. Hence both methods of Gumbel and Gringorten can be used for all stations. 4.2 Monthly wind speed data Statistical analysis was also done for the monthly wind speed data for the same 10 stations using SPSS software, and the results are shown in Table 2.

238

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

S. S. S. Almaawali et. al.

Table 2: Descriptive statistical analysis for monthly wind speed data for 10 stations

Table 2 shows that the minimum mean (13.7m/s) of monthly wind speed was in Salalah station and the maximum mean (19.2 m/s) in Sur station. The maximum wind speed recorded in Nizwa 40.6 m/s and the minimum was in Sohar with 5.1 m/s. The skewness was all > 0 therefore both methods of Gumbel and Gringorten can be used for all stations. The stationarity of monthly wind speed data for Seed airport can be checked from Figure 1. It can be seen that 95% of data occurs in the interval 2 , and according to Chebyshevs theory; the upper monthly maximum speed data can be classified as stationary.
40

Max wind speed m/s

30

20

10

Figure 1: Time series plot for max monthly wind speed for Seeb airport station

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

05 20 N 003 JA 2 G 002 AU 2 0 R A 0 M 20 9 T C 9 O 19 7 Y A 9 M 19 6 T C 9 O 19 R 94 AP 19 P 92 SE 19 1 P 99 SE 1 9 R A 8 M 19 8 T C 98 O 1 Y 6 A 8 M 19 5 EC 8 D 19 L 84 JU 1 9 B 82 FE 19 1 P 8 SE 19 R 79 AP 19 V 8 O 7 N 19 N 77 JU 19 N JA

MONTH

239

Determination of Basic Wind Speed for Building Structures in Oman

5.

PREDICTION OF BASIC WIND SPEED FOR OMAN

Wind speed data has been collected from 10 stations through out Oman by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Meteorology. Wind speed data were measured at height 10 m using cup anemometers (wind vane) as shown in Table 3. These data were analyzed statistically using SPSS and Excel software by two methods; standard Gumble method, and Gringorten method. The equations of reduced variate versus maximum wind speed were produced and listed in Table 4. Table 3: Wind speed data for main stations in Oman
Station Seeb Airport Salalah Nizwa Saiq Sohar Sur Buraimi Masirah Thumrait Khasab Sample size (years ) 29 25 9 24 25 25 22 17 25 24 Period 1977 2005 1980-2004 1996 2004 1980-2003 1980-2004 1980-2004 1981-1996 , 1998-2004 1980-1995 , 2004 1980-2004 1981-2004

Table 4: Equations of wind speed versus reduced variate for 10 stations using Gumbel and Gringorten methods
Stations Seeb Airport Salalah Nizwa Saiq Sohar Sur Buraimi Masirah Thumrait Khasab Gumbel method Annual Monthly y = 5.0912x + y = 6.4598x + 19.656 14.05 y = 4.49x + y = 5.413x + 19.748 13.875 y = 6.7784x + y = 6.8938x + 25.982 16.859 y = 5.458x + y = 5.6944x + 20.819 15.358 y = 7.1835x + y = 6.5871x + 17.271 12.157 y = 3.8416x + y = 5.3015x + 22.214 16.768 y = 6.6821x + y = 7.0676x + 21.214 15.141 y = 3.5133x + y = 5.5475x + 20.47 14.829 Y = 4.2595x + y = 5.5369x + 21.614 15.384 Y = 4.9245x + y = 7.3446x + 22.542 15.831 Gringorten method Annual Monthly y = 4.4737x + y = 6.204x + 19.762 14.114 y = 3.8834x + y = 5.0549x + 19.908 13.909 y = 5.4887x + y = 6.681x + 26.337 16.928 y = 4.7755x + y = 5.9576x + 21.015 15.025 y = 6.1809x + y = 6.0949x + 17.574 12.248 y = 3.1566x + y = 5.0434x + 22.444 16.834 y = 5.7359x + y = 6.6423x + 21.493 15.186 y = 2.3219x + y = 4.3196x + 20.621 14.867 y = 3.6426x + y = 5.0688x + 21.79 15.497 y = 4.3161x + y = 6.6107x + 22.687 15.935

240

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

S. S. S. Almaawali et. al.

The basic wind speed for designing building structures for 10 major stations in Oman were determined for 50 years ,100 years , 500 years and 1000 years return periods . Tables 5 8 show the basic wind speeds for the 10 stations for both Gumbel and Gringorten methods using the equation (3) Table 5: Basic wind speeds (Vs) for 10 stations and different return periods from monthly data using Gringorten method
City Seeb Airport Salalah Nizwa Saiq Sohar Sur Buraimi Masirah Thumrait Khasab 50 years 38.4 33.7 43.1 38.3 36.2 36.5 41.2 31.8 35.3 41.7 100 years 42.7 37.2 47.7 42.3 40.4 40.0 45.8 34.8 38.8 46.3 500 years 52.7 45.3 58.4 52.1 50.2 48.2 56.5 41.7 47.0 56.9 1000 years 56.9 48.8 63.1 56.2 54.4 51.6 61.1 44.7 50.5 61.5

Table 6: Basic wind speeds (Vs) for 10 stations and different return periods from monthly data using Gumbel method City 50 years 100 years 500 years 1000 years Seeb Airport 39.3 43.8 54.2 58.7 Salalah 35 38.7 47.4 51.2 Nizwa 43.9 48.7 59.8 64.6 Saiq 37.7 41.6 50.8 54.8 Sohar 38 42.6 53.2 57.8 Sur 37.5 41.2 49.7 53.4 Buraimi 42.7 47.6 58.9 63.8 Masirah 36.5 40.4 49.3 53.2 Thumrait 37.1 40.9 49.8 53.7 Khasab 44.4 49.4 61.2 66.2 Table 7: Basic wind speeds (Vs) for 10 stations and different return periods from annual data using Gringorten method City 50 years 100 years 500 years 1000 years Seeb Airport 37.4 40.5 47.8 50.9 Salalah 35.2 37.9 44.1 46.8 Nizwa 47.8 51.6 60.5 64.3 Saiq 39.8 43.1 50.8 54.2 Sohar 41.9 46.2 56.1 60.4 Sur 34.8 37 42 44.2 Buraimi 43.8 47.7 56.9 60.9 Masirah 29.6 31.2 34.9 36.5 Thumrait 35.9 38.4 44.2 46.7 Khasab 39.5 42.5 49.4 52.4

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

241

Determination of Basic Wind Speed for Building Structures in Oman

Table 8: Basic wind speeds (Vs) for 10 stations and different return periods from annual data using Gumbel method City 50 years 100 years 500 years 1000 years Seeb Airport 39.7 43.2 51.4 54.9 Salalah 37.4 40.5 47.7 50.8 Nizwa 52.6 57.3 68.3 72.9 Saiq 42.3 46.1 55 58.8 Sohar 45.5 50.5 62 67 Sur 37.1 39.7 45.8 48.4 Buraimi 47.4 52 62.8 67.5 Masirah 34.2 36.6 42.3 44.7 Thumrait 38.4 41.2 48.1 51 Khasab 41.7 45 53 56.3 Figure 2 and 3 show the Excel plots of wind speeds against reduced variate (r) for the Seeb Airport station using both Gumbel and Grigorten methods for annual wind speed data. The equation of best fit line for the data is illustrated in each graph which is the same equations as shown in Table 4.
S e e b an n u al G rin g o rte n
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 re d u ce d v a ria te

max wind speed m/s

y = 4.4737x + 19.762

2.5

3.5

Figure 2: Graph of max Annual wind speed for Seeb using Gringorten method
Seeb annual Gumbel
40 m a xw in ds p e e dm /s 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 reduced variate y = 5.0912x + 19.656

Figure 3: Graph of max Annual wind speed for Seeb using Gumbel method

242

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

S. S. S. Almaawali et. al.

6.

RECOMMENDED BASIC WIND SPEED

From Tables 5 8, one can extract the recommended basic wind speed for designing building structures in Oman ( 50 years return period ) by easily taking the maximum values of wind speeds mentioned in the above Tables. The values of basic wind speeds recommended for the design of building structures in Oman are summarized in Table 9. Table 9: Recommended Basic wind speeds (Vs) in m/s for 10 stations and 50 years return period City Vs Method Data Seeb Airport 39.7 Gumbel Annual Salalah 37.4 Gumbel Annual Nizwa 52.6 Gumbel Annual Saiq 42.3 Gumbel Annual Sohar 45.5 Gumbel Annual Sur 37.5 Gumbel Monthly Buraimi 47.4 Gumbel Annual Masirah 36.5 Gumbel Monthly Thumrait 38.4 Gumbel Annual Khasab 44.4 Gumbel Monthly

7.

CONCLUSIONS

In order to design buildings safely and economically wind loads must be determined according to the climate of each country. The wind loads depend on basic wind speed which was determined in this research for the Sultanate of Oman. It is found that a total 2781 raw wind data measured by Department of Meteorology in Oman has been compiled and analyzed using both Gumbel and Gringorten methods. The characteristics of wind speed data in Oman were classified as stationary because 95% is within the interval 2 . Finally, basic wind speeds has been determined for 10 stations in Oman as shown in Table9.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thanks the School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Oman meteorological department for their constant support and encouragement.

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244

243

Determination of Basic Wind Speed for Building Structures in Oman

REFERENCES

[1]. Ministry of Information, Sultanate of Oman, The Journal of Oman studies, Volume 3, 1977 [2]. Keven, C., A computational statistics analysis of daily and hourly wind speed for the Sebarang Jaya telecommunication tower , Master degree thesis , USM , 2003 [3]. Leviten, M.L, statistical analysis to validate full scale wind and structural response data, a thesis in civil engineering, Texas technology university, 1988 [4]. Harris, R.I. , Gumbel re-visited: a new look at extreme value statistics applied to wind speeds, Journal of Wind Engineering and Aerodynamics 59 (1996) [5]. Holmes, J., "Wind loading on buildings, SPON press, 2001

244

ICCBT 2008 - F - (22) pp235-244