AAE 556

Aeroelasticity

Structural damping - an energy

dissipation mechanism

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 A few preliminaries
Differences between viscous and structural
damping

 Viscous damping
– Energy dissipation due to heat generation from
viscous fluid drag in a fluid
 Structural damping in metals
– Sometimes called “hysteretic damping”
– Due to slipping between micro surfaces
– Heat is generated and energy dispersed
– Different from viscous mechanism
– Magnitude of energy loss depends upon material
type and mode of vibration

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 Viscous damping effect
with harmonic forcing

Solution

Complex solution

Complex force

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Work done by viscous damping is
the area inside a hysteresis loop

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Energy expended by the viscous forces
(work done)

work done by
viscous force
is negative or
dissipative

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 A different case - Dissipative structural damping -
internal damping forces-not velocity dependent

The constant 
is material and
displacement
dependent
Torsional motion
damping is
different than
plunge damping.
Why?

Work is not frequency dependent

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 Viscous and structural damping
energy equivalence

What would an equivalent

structural damping need to
be to have the same energy
extracted by a viscous
damper?

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 Write the “viscous” equation of
motion using equivalent structural
damping

Use a complex
solution approach

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 Result after assumed solution
substitution No
frequency
dependence
but there is
an “i”

This is the harmonic response of a single DOF

spring/mass system including structural damping.
The constant  is a material parameter determined
by experiment and it is always positive.

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 Define a new engineering term
- the structural damping coefficient, gx

This is a very poor choice of

letters because damping looks
like gravity!!

Single DOF spring/mass harmonic response with

a “complex stiffness”
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 Solution for response amplitude

X =
F
m ( w 2
o - w - igw
2 2
o )
(w 2
o -w ) +( g w )
2 2
x
2 2
o

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 Measuring gx at resonance

Set the forcing frequency, w, equal to

the system natural frequency

m( o o )
F w 2
- w 2
- ig w 2

X=
(w 2
o -w ) +( g w )
2 2
x
2 2
o

F = Fo

X = -i
�Fo
� m ( g x o )
w 2 �
�
� ( g xwo )
� 2 2 �
�
� �
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 Structural damping from
harmonic shaker test
� Fo �
X = -i � m2 �
�( g w ) �
� x o � p
� � -iFo -iFo -i
X= = = xo e 2
mg xwo2
gxk

Fo gx is not large - of the

gx = order of 0.01-0.05
kxo

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 Including structural damping in the equations of motion
Modify existing stiffness elements

�Kh 0�
�0 �
Kq �
�

K h ( 1 + ig h )
� 0 �
� �
� 0 Kq ( 1 + igq ) �
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 Summary

 Structural damping depends on the type of

strain (cantilever beam motion or twisting
motion) but does not depend on strain rate
(frequency).
 Structural damping depends on the type of
material (steel, aluminum, composite)
 Structural damping constant is only
meaningful (valid) for forced harmonic motion
 Structural damping always dissipates
(removes) energy from the system
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