Wind Loading Chain

Announcement of the
Alan G. Davenport Wind

Loading Chain
Professor Alan Garnett Davenport (1932 2009)
On July 12, 2011 during ICWE-13 in Amsterdam, the General Assembly of the International
Association of Wind Engineering (IAWE) unanimously approved the use of the term the Alan G.
Davenport Wind Loading Chain for describing Alan Davenports approach for evaluating wind
loads and wind-induced responses for buildings and structures. Many of us remember Alan G.
Davenports name in connection with a number of specific technical aspects of wind engineering.
These include his power law wind profiles; his spectrum of turbulence; his admittance and joint
acceptance functions, which describe the spatial and temporal properties of turbulence as
required in the evaluation of dynamic wind action; his gust effect factor; his pioneering use of
wind tunnel model studies to chart the dynamic properties of buildings and structures; his
statistical methods for predicting maximum values of extreme winds and their effects of wind on
buildings and structures; and his criteria for judging the effects of wind on building occupants and
pedestrians. Notwithstanding his influence on these and many other specific aspects of wind
engineering, his greatest legacy is his rational approach or chain of thought, which ties together
these various concepts in the development of the methodology for evaluating the action of wind
particular buildings and structures.
Professor Davenports approach or chain of thought is described as follows:
Alans approach recognizes that the wind loading on a particular building or structure is
determined by the combined effects of the local wind climate, which must be described in
statistical terms; the local wind exposure, which is determined by the terrain roughness and
topography; the aerodynamic characteristics of the building shape; and the potential for load
increases due to possible wind-induced resonant vibrations. He also recognized that clear criteria
must be in place for judging the acceptability of the predicted loads and responses. These include
the effects of wind on the integrity of the structural system and the exterior envelope and various
serviceability considerations which influence performance and which determine habitability. The
latter include the wind-induced drift, the effects of wind-induced motion on occupants and the
usability of outdoor areas of the project, as well as its immediate surroundings.
In his papers Alan referred to this process for evaluating wind action as the wind loading chain.
This was in recognition that the evaluation of wind loading and its effects relies on several
interconnected considerations, each of which requires scrutiny and careful assessment. With
analogy to a physical chain, the weakest link or component of the process determines the final
outcome. Little is gained by embellishing strong links but much is lost by not paying attention to
the weak ones.
Alan and others have written about this wind loading chain and have used this chain concept to
describe and solve specific wind engineering problems. Perhaps the most lucid raison dtre for
this chain was articulated by Alan himself in his Chapter 12 of the book entitled Engineering
Meteorology, edited by Eric Plate and published by Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company in
1982. This chain or multiplicative process for arriving at wind loads has been adopted in many
building codes and standards. Not only is it effective for formulating the loads and responses to
wind action, it is also a powerful model for evaluating the reliability of the final outcome. For
example, the coefficient of variation of the predicted wind action to a good degree of
approximation is equal to the square root of the sums of the squares of the coefficients of
variation of each of the individual links. In the case of wind loads, the coefficient of variation (CV)
can be approximated as follows
CVwind load ( CV 2 reference wind pressure + CV 2 wind exp osure + CV 2 aerodynamic shape + CV 2 dynamic action )1 / 2
It is most fitting that the IAWE has decided to posthumously honor the late Alan G. Davenport by
adding the Alan G. Davenport Wind Loading Chain to the wind engineering terminology. This is
done in recognition of Alans many contributions to the development of wind engineering. It is
hoped that the usage of the term Alan G. Davenport Wind Loading Chain to describe the wind
loading process, as Alan developed it, will keep both the man and his work in our memory.
Nicholas Isyumov
Consulting Director
Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada
The proposal submitted to the IAWE to formally recognize the term Alan G. Davenport Wind
Loading Chain for use by the wind engineering community was supported by the following
colleagues at the BLWTL:
Horia Hangan, Director
Eric Ho, Director
Peter King, Director
Greg Kopp, Director
David Surry, Consulting Director
Barry Vickery, Consulting Director

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What is the Alan G. Davenport Wind Loading Chain?

What are the components of the wind loading chain?

Announcement of the

Alan G. Davenport Wind

Professor Alan Garnett Davenport (1932 2009)

Professor Davenports approach or chain of thought is described as follows:

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