Extreme Wind Speeds, Gustiness, and Variations with Height for MIL-STD 210B

Book excerpt: MIL-STD-210A, 'Climatic Extremes for Military Equipment', is being revised. The revision will include two sets of windspeed design goals for military equipment being developed for worldwide usage over land: (1) the speed up to which 'operations' are expected to proceed, (2) the speed that equipment should 'withstand' without irreversible damage. A study of gustiness and variations of wind with height during strong wind regimes is presented. Nomograms of gust factor versus gust duration and steady windspeed are used to assign the most dynamically effective gust according to equipment dimensions. Based on a power-law relationship, factors for adjusting windspeed to a common height to describe windspeed and gusts over the vertical extent of military equipment usage are presented. Also included is a tabulation of wind statistics for selected stations considered in the search for worldwide wind extremes.