Path integral solution of nonlinear dynamic behavior of structure under wind excitation

A numerical scheme for the nonlinear behavior of structure under wind excitation is investigated. With the white noise filter of turbulent-wind fluctuations, the nonlinear motion equation of structures subjected to wind load was modeled as the Ito’s stochastic differential equation. The state vector associated with such a model is a diffusion process. A continuous linearization strategy in the time-domain was adopted. Based on the solution series of its stochastic linearization equations, the formal probabilistic density of the structure response was developed by the path integral technique. It is shown by the numerical example of a guyed mast that compared with the frequency-domain method and the time-domain nonlinear analysis, the proposed approach is highlighted by high accuracy and effectiveness. The influence of the structure non-linearity on the dynamic reliability assessment is also analyzed in the example.