Structures with Nonviscous Damping, Modeling, and Analysis

Introduction

The role of damping is vitally important in predicting dynamic response of structures, such as building and bridges subjected to earthquake loads. Noise and vibration are not only uncomfortable to the users of these complex dynamical systems but also may lead to fatigue, fracture, and even failure of such systems. Increasing use of composite structural materials, active control, and damage-tolerant systems in the aerospace and automotive industries has led to renewed demand for energy absorbing and high damping materials. Effective applications of such materials in complex engineering dynamical systems require robust and efficient analytical and numerical methods. Due to the superior damping characteristics, the dynamics of viscoelastic materials and structures have received significant attention over the past two decades. This chapter is aimed at developing computationally efficient and physically insightful approximate numerical methods for linear dynamical systems with...