
EXAMPLE 8.9 Free oscillation comparison for a system with an arbitrary damping
model and a system with a constant modal damping model
We compare the free oscillations of two systems with identical mass and stiff-
ness matrices, but with different damping matrices. In one case, the damping
matrix product term
(a)
is a diagonal matrix while in the other case, this matrix product is not diago-
nal. For the diagonal matrix case, the damping factors are the same for each
of the two modes and, hence, this case is referred to as a constant modal
damping case. In this case, as illustrated in Example 8.2, one can determine
the solution for free oscillations by using the normal-mode approach. How-
ever, this is not possible to do when the damping matrix is arbitrary or the
matrix product is not a diagonal matrix. Here, we consider the constant
modal damping case of Example 8.2 as a baseline case and make changes to
the damping matrix determined for this baseline case so that the matrix
product is not a diagonal matrix. In both cases, the solutions for free os-
cillations of the displacement states are determined by making use of the
state-space formulation; that is, Eq. (8.56). The initial conditions for both
cases are given by Eqs. (a) of Example 8.2.
Constant Modal Damping Case
In Example 8.2, we considered damped oscillations of a two degree-of-
freedom system. In this example, which is a continuation of Examples 7.14 and
7.20, it is assumed that the damping matrix product term can be approximated
by the following equation, which is obtained by assuming constant modal
damping and dropping the off-diagonal terms because they are “small.”
(b)
To determine the damping matrix , which will lead to the diagonal matrix
shown in Eq. (b), we carry out a series of matrix multiplications and find from
Eq. (b) that the damping matrix needs to take the form
(c)
Equation (c) can be used to determine the damping coefficients c
1
, c
2
, and c
3
that will provide constant modal damping and a matrix that will be a di-
agonal matrix.
Previously, in Example 7.20, the modal matrix and the modal masses were
determined along with the system natural frequencies. On using Eq. (7.68a),
Eqs. (a), (b), and (g) of Example 7.20, and the value of z 0.05 used in Exam-
ple 8.2, Eq. (c) results in
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468 CHAPTER 8 Multiple Degree-of-Freedom Systems