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Problems encountered from the use (or misuse) of Rayleigh damping
Author(s) -
Hall John F.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
earthquake engineering and structural dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.218
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9845
pISSN - 0098-8847
DOI - 10.1002/eqe.541
Subject(s) - damping matrix , dissipation , structural engineering , stiffness , restoring force , stiffness matrix , engineering , matrix (chemical analysis) , earthquake engineering , mass matrix , rayleigh scattering , finite element method , physics , materials science , optics , neutrino , nuclear physics , composite material , thermodynamics
Rayleigh damping is commonly used to provide a source of energy dissipation in analyses of structures responding to dynamic loads such as earthquake ground motions. In a finite element model, the Rayleigh damping matrix consists of a mass‐proportional part and a stiffness‐proportional part; the latter typically uses the initial linear stiffness matrix of the structure. Under certain conditions, for example, a non‐linear analysis with softening non‐linearity, the damping forces generated by such a matrix can become unrealistically large compared to the restoring forces, resulting in an analysis being unconservative. Potential problems are demonstrated in this paper through a series of examples. A remedy to these problems is proposed in which bounds are imposed on the damping forces. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.