Lecture 3

Damping
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ANSYS Mechanical
Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics
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Damping in Dynamic Analyses

Topics covered:
A. Damping definition

B. Types damping
C. General Equation of Motion
D. Viscous damping in single-DOF vibration
E. Damping Matrices
i. Full Transient and Damped Modal Analyses
ii. Full Harmonic Analysis
iii. Mode-Superposition Analysis

F.

Numerical Damping

G. Workshop 2

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A. Damping Definition
Damping is an energy-dissipation mechanism that causes vibrations to
diminish over time and eventually stop.
e.g. vibrational energy that is converted to heat or sound

In damping, the energy of the vibrating system is dissipated by various

mechanisms, and often more than one mechanism may be present at the
same time.
The amount of damping may depend on the material, the velocity of
motion, and/or the frequency of vibration.

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B. Types of Damping
Damping can be classified as:
Viscous damping (e.g. dashpot, shock absorber)
Material / Solid / Hysteretic damping (e.g. internal friction)
Coulomb or dry-friction damping (e.g. sliding friction)

Numerical damping (artificial damping)

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C. General Equation of Motion

The non-linear governing equation for the Transient Dynamic Analysis is:

Finertia

Fdamping

Fstiffness

Fapplied

M u C u K (u )u F t

[M]: is structural mass matrix

[C]: is structural damping matrix
[K]: is structural stiffness matrix
{F}: is the load vector

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u : is nodal acceleration vector

u : is nodal velocity vector
{u}: is nodal displacement vector
(t): is time

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D. Viscous damping in single-DOF vibration

Equation of motion for a SDOF system with damping,
under free vibration

mu cu k u 0
u 2 nu n2u 0

where: =

is

the un-damped natural frequency

= is the critical damping

(threshold between oscillatory and non-oscillatory behavior).
= is the damping ratio
(ratio of the damping in a system to the critical damping)
= is the frequency of damped oscillation.
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. Viscous damping in 1 DOF vibration

The value of [C] can be input directly as element damping when a spring
element is used (Details section of Spring connection).

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D. Damping Matrices
1. Transient (FULL) Analysis and Damped Modal Analysis
The complete expression for the structural damping matrix, [C], is
damping
Structural damping
Mass

C M im M i K jm K j
Element
damping

N ma

N mb

i 1

j 1

Gyroscopic
damping

Ng

Ne

C G
k 1

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l 1

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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

Alpha damping and Beta damping are used to define Rayleigh damping
constants and . The damping matrix [C] is calculated by using these
constants to multiply the mass matrix [M] and stiffness matrix [K]:

C M K

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2i
2

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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

In many practical structural problems, alpha damping (or mass damping) may be
ignored ( = 0). In such cases, you can evaluate from known values of i and i, as

or

with a given value of damping, the damping ratio is directly proportional to

frequency, i.e., lower frequencies will be damped less and higher frequencies will be
damped more (rigid body damping is ignored).

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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

with a given value of damping, the damping ratio is inversely
proportional to frequency, i.e., lower frequencies will be damped more and
higher frequencies will be damped less

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or 2

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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

To specify both and for a given damping ratio , it is commonly assumed
that the sum of the and terms is nearly constant over a range of
frequencies. Therefore, given and a frequency range 1 to 2, two
simultaneous equations can be solved for and :

f1

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f1
4f1

f 2
4f 2

2i
2

f2

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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

The value of and can be input using the following:
[1] Material-dependent damping value
(Mass-Matrix Damping Multiplier, and k-Matrix Damping
Multiplier)

C M i jm K j
N ma
i 1

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N mb

m
i

Equivalent damping

j 1

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2i
2

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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

[2] Directly as global damping value
(Details section of Analysis Settings)

C M K

Equivalent damping

2i
2

Full Transient

Damped Modal

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 Damping Matrices
2. Full Harmonic Analysis
u

Equation of motion for a SDF system with

damping
uk/f

mu cu ku f sin t
u

f k

1 2
2 2

tan 1

2 n
2
1 n

d n 1 2

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. Material / Solid / Hysteretic damping

in Harmonic Analysis
Material damping is inherently present in a material (energy is
dissipated by internal friction), so it is typically considered in a dynamic
analysis.
Energy dissipated by internal friction in a real system does not depend
on the cyclic frequency.
The simplest device to represent it is to assume the damping force is
proportional to velocity and inversely proportional to frequency

2
g K

Equivalent damping

g = constant structural damping ratio

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. Material / Solid / Hysteretic damping

in Harmonic Analysis
Equation of motion for a SDF system with
material damping

2 gk
mu
u ku f sin t

f k

1 2 g
2 2

2g
tan
2
1 n
1

d n
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Unlike viscous damping,

frequency of damped oscillation
d does not change
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... Structural Damping Matrix [C]

The complete expression for the structural damping matrix, [C], is
damping
Mass

N ma

C M im M i
i 1

Structural damping

N mb
2
2

g K jm g j K j

j 1

Element
damping

Gyroscopic
damping

Viscoelastic
damping

N
Ne
Nv
g
1
Ck Gl Cm
k 1
l 1
l 1

g is constant damping.
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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

The value of g, and can be input using the following:
[1] Material-dependent damping value
(Mass-Matrix Damping Multiplier, and k-Matrix Damping
Multiplier)

C M i jm 2 g j K j
N ma
i 1

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N mb

m
i

j 1

March 28, 2013

Equivalent damping

19

g
2i
2

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. Structural Damping Matrix [C]

[2] Directly as global damping value
(Details section of Analysis Settings)

C M 2 g K

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Equivalent damping

20

g
2i
2

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 Damping Matrices
3. Mode-Superposition Analysis
The Damping Controls for Harmonic Response, Transient Structural, Response
Spectrum, and Random Vibration analyses now support all constant damping
ratios, stiffness matrix
Stiff.
Mass
Constant Coef.
Coef.
ratio

d m
i

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2i
2

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F. Numerical Damping
Not true damping.

Artificially controls numerical noise produced by the higher frequencies of a

structure.

Stabilizes the numerical integration scheme by damping out the unwanted high
frequency modes.
The default value of 10% will damp-out spurious high frequencies and is a
sensible value to try initially.
Use the lowest possible value that damps out nonphysical response without
significantly affecting the final solution.
Available only in transient structural.
High-frequency
response

Primary
Frequency
undamped
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H. Damping --- Summary

In summary, Workbench allows the following four inputs for damping:
Alpha and Beta damping
Global or material-dependent.
Defines the mass matrix multiplier and stiffness matrix multiplier for damping.

Element damping (viscous)

Defines the damping coefficients (c) directly.

Damping ratio g (solid)

Global or material-dependent.
Available only in Full harmonic analysis, and mode-sup analyses (harmonic,
transient, spectrum)
Defines the ratio of actual damping to critical damping.
Does not affect the frequency of damped oscillation d.

Numerical damping (artificial)

Defines the amplitude decay factor obtained through a modification of the timeintegration scheme.
Available only in transient analysis.

NOTE: The effects are cumulative if set in conjunction.

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Workshop 3
Damping in Mechanical WB
14.5 Release

Introduction to ANSYS
Mechanical
2012 ANSYS, Inc.

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