Design spectra for evaluating the dynamic response of buildings under thunderstorm downbursts

This paper presents a spectral technique to determine the effect of thunderstorm downbursts on structures. The method integrates the dynamic response of single oscillators subject to input accelerations induced by wind, based on classical earthquake engineering theory and the proper characterization of turbulence. As the method validates againstprevious works on synoptic wind, enabled to conduct a parametric analysis to scrutinise its dependence on outflow gust velocity, mechanical and dynamical properties of the structure, and variations of the damping ratio and terrain categories. The design spectra for thunderstorm downbursts were used to estimate the dynamic performance of a high rise building and the results obtained showed consistency with separate numerical approaches. The proposed technique offers an alternative for the rapid and effective evaluation of structural performance under thunderstorm downbursts and could expand to cover other wind environments.