/
Damping

Damping

NOTE: We recommend using at least a small amount of damping for modal and direct-integration cases, even when dampers are present in the model.

Damping, a property of the material and the structure, influences dynamic response. A certain type of damping is available for each type of load case. Within all load cases of a certain type, damping is applied consistently, though additional damping may be added to individual load cases.

  • Modal damping is used for response-spectrum and modal time-history analyses. Material modal damping, also known as composite modal damping, is weighted according to element and modal stiffness. For each material, users specify a material modal damping ratio r, in which 0 < r < 1, which relates to the damping ratio of each mode.

  • Viscous proportional damping is used for direct-integration time-history analysis. This property is proportional to mass and stiffness.

  • Hysteretic proportional damping, also mass- and stiffness-proportional, is used for steady-state and power-spectral-density analyses. 

  • Damping devices may also be modeled as a structural subsystem, as described in the Tuned-mass damper tutorial.

See Also

  • SAP2000 verification examples 6-005, 6-006, and 6-007 – examples which incorporate dampers and associated behaviors

  • Additional information on each of these damping types may be found in the CSI Analysis Reference Manual (Chapter VI: Material Properties, Material Damping)

Related Content

Articles

Tutorials

Test Problems

Filter by label

There are no items with the selected labels at this time.

 

Related content

Damping FAQ
More like this
Tuned-mass damper
Tuned-mass damper
More like this
Response spectrum analysis and nonlinear properties
Response spectrum analysis and nonlinear properties
More like this
Time-history analysis
Time-history analysis
More like this
Comparison between FNA and direct-integration time-history analyses
Comparison between FNA and direct-integration time-history analyses
More like this
Power-spectral-density analysis
Power-spectral-density analysis
More like this