Applications of Generalized Coordinate Synthesis Method in Wind Engineering

Generalized Coordinates Synthesis (GCS) method is a convenient approach to predict wind-induced responses of buildings and structures based on the wind pressure time histories obtained by wind tunnel tests. Unlike traditional ways in frequency domain, GCS method calculates the wind-induced responses in time domain. The wind pressure time histories are firstly transformed into modal forces by matrix multiplication and consequently the single-degree-of-freedom generalized coordinate equations are solved readily by Fast Fourier Transform in frequency domain. Finally the responses can be obtained by the mode superposition. GCS method generally takes less than 10% of time consuming of traditional methods while the results are mathematically equivalent with them. In addition, further applications can be developed easily since the time histories of modal forces have been explicitly given using GCS.