Uncertainty propagation of turbulence parameters for typhoon and Non-typhoon winds in buffeting analysis of Long-span bridges

Wind turbulence-induced buffeting vibration affects the serviceability of long-span bridges and lead to fatigue problems. The randomness of turbulence parameters in the power spectrum density function is always disregarded, failing to well reproduce the dispersion of structural buffeting responses and achieve the extreme vibration amplitude. This study proposes a probabilistic buffeting analysis approach based on multi-point estimation, dimension reduction techniques, and the principle of maximum entropy accounting for the uncertainty of turbulence parameters. The uncertainties in turbulence power spectral density functions are quantified based on the long-term real observational wind data captured by the sensors installed at Xihoumen Bridge. These uncertainties are propagated into the buffeting response of the bridge using the proposed method. The results are compared with those of Monte Carlo simulation, suggesting a good agreement with substantially lower computational costs can be attained by the proposed method. Then, the probability density evolution of buffeting response versus wind speed is calculated. Results reveal that typhoon-induced buffeting response is greater than non-typhoon’s under low mean wind speeds (e.g., 25 m/s), whereas it is the opposite at high wind speeds (e.g., 30 m/s). The predicted probability density evolution of buffeting response exhibits a great consistency with real observations. By introducing the mean wind speed hazard curves for both typhoon and non-typhoon winds, the exceeding probability of vibration within a given period can be easily attained. It allows the estimation of return periods of structural responses and development of the uniform-risk approach for structure design rather than the conventional uniform-hazard design method.