Application of an Empirical Extreme Value Distribution to Load Models

An empirical extreme value distribution with lower and upper bounds proposed by the author is applied to represent probability distribution models for maximum load intensities of (he earthquake ground motion, the wind speed, and the live load in supermarkets. One of the difficulties in the estimation of the parameters is determining the upper bound value. Nevertheless application of the proposed distribution to the annual maximum earthquake ground motion results in considerable improvements over other models. Possible improvements to the annual maximum wind speed model are discussed. The proposed distribution is also a good candidate for the live load extremes.