Methodology for obtaining a new map of basic wind speeds

Abstract

Within the methods for obtaining extreme wind speeds for the development of structures, conditioning techniques have emerged, such as the differentiation of winds according to their generating mechanisms. This has proven to be effective in places with mixed climates, such as Cuba. Another way to reduce the uncertainties in calculating the wind load is by verifying the conditions of the meteorological stations and their speed records. The World Meteorological Organization establishes specific criteria to guarantee that the records of a station are reliable, among which are the characteristics of the surrounding terrain. The present work contributes to the improvement of the current Cuban wind standard where these techniques were not considered, and aims to obtain a new wind speed map that applies the method of independent storms. In addition, the wind speed values were corrected from the terrain roughness data of the stations studied by using two methods. The results showed concordance between both methods of obtaining the roughness of the terrain and differences with the values of wind speeds of the current Cuban standard.