Hello!,
Proper specification of damping is probably the most difficult modeling input in Advanced Dynamic Analysis with any fea code, as for example NX NASTRAN. The easiest way to specify damping is to use modal damping, which is often specified as the percentage of critical damping.
Two types of damping are generally used for linear-elastic materials: viscous and structural. The viscous damping force is proportional to velocity, and the structural damping force is proportional to displacement.
In NX NASTRAN the definition is via the structural damping coefficient GE. An alternate method for defining structural damping is through PARAM,G,r where r is the structural damping coefficient. This parameter multiplies the stiffness matrix to obtain the structural damping matrix. The default value for PARAM,G is 0.0. The default value causes this source of structural damping to be ignored.
Please note that
Modal damping can be used only in modal frequency response (SEMFREQ SOL111) and modal transient response (SEMTRAN SOL112). Other forms of damping have to be used for the direct methods of response. For frequency response analysis, GE (field 9 of the MAT1 entry) and PARAM,G define structural damping. These variables are also used to specify structural damping for transient response analysis but are not activated unless PARAM,W3 and PARAM,W4 are set to nonzero values. A common mistake is to forget to set these values.
In many cases damping is not an important consideration. For example, a structure's peak response due to an impulsive load is relatively unaffected by damping since the peak response occurs during the first cycle of response. Damping in a long duration transient excitation, such as an earthquake, can make a difference in the peak response on the order of 10 to 20% or so, but this difference is small when compared to the other modeling uncertainties.
Therefore, it is often conservative to ignore damping in a transient response analysis.
Best regards,
Blas.
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Blas Molero Hidalgo
Ingeniero Industrial
Director
IBERISA
48011 BILBAO (SPAIN)
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