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Mixed Climatology, Non-synoptic Phenomena and Downburst Wind Loading of Structures

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Proceedings of the XV Conference of the Italian Association for Wind Engineering (IN VENTO 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ((LNCE,volume 27))

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Abstract

Modern wind engineering was born in 1961, when Davenport published a paper in which meteorology, micrometeorology, climatology, bluff-body aerodynamics and structural dynamics were embedded within a homogeneous framework of the wind loading of structures called today “Davenport chain”. Idealizing the wind with a synoptic extra-tropical cyclone, this model was so simple and elegant as to become a sort of axiom. Between 1976 and 1977 Gomes and Vickery separated thunderstorm from non-thunderstorm winds, determined their disjoint extreme distributions and derived a mixed model later extended to other Aeolian phenomena; this study, which represents a milestone in mixed climatology, proved the impossibility of labelling a heterogeneous range of events by the generic term “wind”. This paper provides an overview of this matter, with particular regard to the studies conducted at the University of Genova on thunderstorm downbursts.

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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 741273) for the project THUNDERR - Detection, simulation, modelling and loading of thunderstorm outflows to design wind-safer and cost-efficient structures – supported by an Advanced Grant 2016.

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  1. Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering (DICCA), Polytechnic School, University of Genova, Via Montallegro, 1, 16145, Genoa, Italy

    G. Solari

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  1. Department of Engineering, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Aversa, Italy

    Francesco Ricciardelli

  2. Department of Engineering, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Aversa, Italy

    Alberto Maria Avossa

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Solari, G. (2019). Mixed Climatology, Non-synoptic Phenomena and Downburst Wind Loading of Structures. In: Ricciardelli, F., Avossa, A. (eds) Proceedings of the XV Conference of the Italian Association for Wind Engineering. IN VENTO 2018. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12815-9_2

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