INFLUENCE OF NON-GAUSSIAN LOCAL PRESSURES ON CLADDING GLASS

The importance of the non-Gaussian nature of local pressure fluctuations is assessed through a numerical procedure to evaluate glass cladding damage. The dimensionless damage function developed by Reed and Fuller [1] is used in conjunction with a pressure distribution developed by Matsui et al. [2] to assess this influence. It is shown that a significant difference in damage estimation occurs for a turbulence intensity of 20% on rectangular cladding panels. These limited results suggest that the damage incurred during storms where large pressure fluctuations occur may be considerably greater than that estimated using a Gaussian assumption. This conclusion confirms the earlier work of Holmes [3] who used a different approach.