Simulation of Non-Gaussian Stochastic Process with Target Power Spectral Density and Lower-Order Moments

In this paper, a direct simulation algorithm is presented for the generation of a class of non-Gaussian stochastic processes according to target lower-order moments and prescribed power spectral density (PSD) function. The proposed algorithm is to expand the autoregressive (AR) model and the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model, which are available to generate Gaussian random process, to simulate directly non-Gaussian stochastic process. The coefficients of the AR or ARMA model are determined based on the prescribed PSD function. It is well known that outputting stochastic process is also non-Gaussian if inputting white noise is non-Gaussian. But the skewness and kurtosis of the outputting non-Gaussian random process are not identical to these of inputting non-Gaussian white noise. In this paper, the relationships of lower-order moments such as skewness and kurtosis between output and input are analyzed and close to linear transformations. To corroborate the feasibility and correctness of the present methodology, numerical examples involving simulation of fluctuating wind pressures are taken into consideration. Numerical results indicate that the skewness and kurtosis of generated wind pressures based on the AR or ARMA model closely match their targets. In addition, the PSD and correlation functions of simulated samples also show considerably good agreement with prescribed functions. Therefore, the proposed algorithm is effective to simulate directly the class of non-Gaussian stochastic process. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EM.1943-7889.0000349. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.