Short-Record-Based Extreme Wind Simulation

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 In urder to utilize limited historical wind records for estimating extreme wind speeds for natural hazards damage mitigation, a Markov chain model for generating long-term annual extreme winds, on the basis of short-term records, is investigated. Basically, this simuJation model consists of three components. They are state of wind speeds, wind speed distribution functions, and transition probability matrices. The basic strategy of our simulation model is to generate the time series of hourly wind speeds in parts: for those winds associated with well-behaved climates and those with extreme winds. Applications of this model to generate long-term extreme winds, on the basis of short records at Houston Intercontinental Airport of Texas, arc demonstrated.