Generalized equivalent spectrum technique

Wind forces on structures are usually schematized by the sum of their mean static part and a nil mean fluctuation generally treated as a stationary process randomly varying in space and time. The multi-variate and multi-dimensional nature of such a process requires a considerable quantity of numerical procedures to carry out the dynamic analysis of the structural response. With the aim of drastically reducing the above computational burden, this paper introduces a method by means of which the external fluctuating wind forces on slender structures and structural elements are schematized by an equivalent process identically coherent in space. This process is identified by a power spectral density function, called the Generalized Equivalent Spectrum, whose expression is given in closed form.