Types of Damping

1. Viscous Damping
Viscous damping is a common form of damping which is formed in many engineering
systems such as instruments and shock absorbers. The viscous damping force is proportional to
the first power of the velocity across the damper, and it always opposes the motion, so that the
damping force is a linear continuous function of the velocity. Because the analysis of viscous
damping leads to the simplest mathematical treatment, analysts sometimes approximate more
complex types of damping to the viscous type.
Consider the single degree of freedom model with viscous damping shown in Figure. The
only unfamiliar element in the system is the viscous damper with coefficient c. This coefficient is
such that the damping force required to move the body with a velocity ẋ is cẋ

For motion of the body in the direction shown, the free body diagrams are as in Figure.
The equation of motion is therefore

(equation 2.9)
This equation of motion pertains to the whole of the cycle: the reader should verify that
this is so. (Note: displacements to the left of the equilibrium position are negative and velocities
and accelerations from right to left are also negative.) Equation (2.9) is a 2nd order differential
equation which can be solved by assuming a solution of the form . Substituting this
solution into equation (2.9) gives

Since (otherwise no motion)

so,

Hence

Where X1 and X2 are arbitrary constants found from the initial conditions. The system
response evidently depends on whether c is positive or negative, and on whether c2 is greater
than, equal to, or less than 4mk.
 The dynamic behavior of the system depends on the numerical value of the radical, so
we define critical damping as that value of c(cc) which makes the radical zero: that is,

Hence

The actual damping is a system can be specified in terms of cc by introducing the

damping ratio ζ. Thus

And

2. Coulomb Damping
Steady friction forces occur in many systems when relative motion takes place between
adjacent members. These forces are independent of amplitude and frequency; they always
oppose the motion and their magnitude may, to a first approximation, be considered constant.
Dry friction can, of course, just be one of the damping mechanisms present; however, in some
systems it is the main source of damping. In these cases the damping can be modeled as in
Figure 1.

Figure 1

The constant friction force Fd always oppose the motion, so that if the body is displaced
a distance x0 to the right and released from rest we have, for motion from right to left only,
or
The solution to the complementary function is

Where

rad/s
Therefore
3. Structural Damping
Damping of structures is a very complex phenomenon, which refers to two basic reasons a)
material damping b) friction damping at the connections. When a structure is subject to
oscillatory deformations the state of the structure can be described by the combination of
kinetic and potential energy. In the case of real structures some of this energy is lost per
deformation cycles and this is called material damping.
Damping is the conversion of mechanical energy of a vibrating structure into thermal energy. If
we want to quantify the level of damping in a structure the absorbed energy per cycle must be
determined. By plotting the force versus displacement for a given cycle of motion a hysteresis
curve is generated (figure 1).
At linear damping the hysteresis loop is an ellipses (figure 1a). In general metals have linear
damping in the case when the stress amplitude less than the fatigue limit. At nonlinear damping
the hysteresis loop is peaked when damping is a result of friction (figure 1b) One possibility to
quantify the level of damping is to determine the area captured within the hysteresis loop

then the specific damping coefficient is:

where U is the stored energy during loading.

For an unforced damped single degree of freedom (SDOF) system the general equation of
motion becomes:

where m is the mass, k is viscous damping constant and c is the spring constant.

4. Non linear Damping

In a mechanical system, the damping force is a function of the system’s velocity. This function is
nonlinear in a number of mechanical systems and similar nonlinear damping behaviour is also
seen in many electrical, biological and other dynamic systems. Examples that will be discussed in
more detail below include the damping in aircraft structures, flow through orifices, damping in
nanoelectromechanical (NEM) systems and the vibration inside the cochlea.
In some applications, the stiffness of the system also changes to some extent with excitation
amplitude, as well as the damping. This nonlinear stiffness can complicate the dynamic
response, particularly if the nonlinearity in the stiffness is severe, and can give rise to jump and
bifurcation phenomena. In many cases, however, it is the damping that is the dominant source
of nonlinearity, and it is interesting and worthwhile to consider the behaviour of systems in
which only the damping is nonlinear. We will see that such systems do not exhibit the kinds of
jump phenomena seen in systems with nonlinear stiffness. In addition, their response for a
given excitation can often be approximated by that of an equivalent linear system, whose
parameters depend on the level of excitation. Such ‘quasi-linear’ models of a nonlinear system,
which are implicit in many methods of analysis, including equivalent linearization and the
describing function, have surprising generality and have been developed in several different
fields. These quasi-linear models are very useful in understanding the dynamic response of a
number of engineering and biological systems, despite their apparent simplicity.

The nonlinear damping force often increases with excitation level, so that the relative response
of the system, compared with the excitation level, is reduced. This is a mechanism for reducing
the range of the system’s response, compared with the range of the input, i.e. compressing its
dynamic response, which we will see is particularly important in the dynamics of the cochlea.

If there is some reason for the linear damping of a system to become negative, so that the
envelope of its linear response would otherwise increase exponentially, nonlinear damping can
provide a mechanism by which the output level is stabilized to a fixed level. Rayleigh [1], for
example, considers systems in which ‘vibration is maintained by wind (organ pipes, harmonium
reeds, Aeolian harps, etc.), by heat (singing flames, Rijke’s tube, etc.), by friction (violin strings,
finger glasses) and the slower vibration of clock pendulums and watch balance wheels’. He goes
on to say that ‘we may form an idea of the state of things’ by including a damping term
proportional to a higher power of velocity in the dynamic equation for a single-degree-of-
freedom system. He then considers the specific case of cubic damping, so that in the notation to
be used here

1.1
where x(t) is the displacement of the system, c1 and c3 are linear and cubic damping
coefficients, respectively, and m and k are the system’s mass and stiffness, respectively. If c1 is
negative but c3 is positive, then the system evolves into a steady oscillation, which we would
now call a limit cycle oscillation, that Rayleigh showed would have a small third harmonic
component, but would otherwise be approximately sinusoidal, at the system’s natural
frequency, ω0, equal to . The fundamental amplitude of the response, x(t), X, was also
shown [1] to be given by the solution to the equation

1.2
 a result we will come back to later. More recently, the dynamics of such a ‘relaxation oscillator’
have often been described using the Van der Pol equation [2], whose interesting history is
discussed by Ginoux & Letellier [3]:
1.3
in which the natural frequency is assumed to be unity and the linear damping coefficient is
assumed to be equal to −μ, where μ is a positive number. If, following [4,5], equation (1.1) is
differentiated with respect to time, and it is assumed that Inline Formula is equal to y(t), then
Van der Pol’s equation, (1.3), can be obtained as a special case of the cubic damping equation,
(1.1), under the conditions that

Although we will mostly focus on stable systems in this paper, with positive values of both linear
and nonlinear damping, this connection with Van der Pol’s equations shows that even simple
models of systems with nonlinear damping can give rise to a rich variety of behaviour. We will
also focus on nonlinear dampers in which the force is a smooth function of velocity, as in
equation (1.1), rather than discontinuous forms of nonlinear damping, such as Coulomb friction,
although similar methods to those described below can still be used to analyse such
nonlinearities.
The aim of this paper is first to review both the variety of mechanisms that give rise to nonlinear
damping and their effects. Second, the analysis of systems with nonlinear damping is discussed,
emphasizing the calculation of the dissipated power. This leads to a quasi-linear model, for both
tonal and random excitations, in which the power dissipation in the nonlinear damper is
matched by an equivalent linear damper. Finally, some practical applications are reviewed in
which nonlinear damping plays an important role in determining their performance.

5. Eddy Current Damping

As discussed in Motional Emf, motional emf is induced when a conductor moves in a magnetic
field or when a magnetic field moves relative to a conductor. If
motional emf can cause a current loop in the conductor, we refer to
that current as an eddy current. Eddy currents can produce significant
drag, called magnetic damping, on the motion involved. Consider the
apparatus shown in Figure 1, which swings a pendulum bob between
the poles of a strong magnet. (This is another favorite physics lab
activity.) If the bob is metal, there is significant drag on the bob as it
enters and leaves the field, quickly damping the motion. If, however,
the bob is a slotted metal plate, as shown in Figure 1(b), there is a
much smaller effect due to the magnet. There is no discernible effect
on a bob made of an insulator. Why is there drag in both directions,
and are there any uses for magnetic drag?
Figure 2 shows what happens to the metal plate as it enters and leaves the magnetic field. In
both cases, it experiences a force opposing its motion. As it
enters from the left, flux increases, and so an eddy current is set
up (Faraday’s law) in the counterclockwise direction (Lenz’s
law), as shown. Only the right-hand side of the current loop is in
the field, so that there is an unopposed force on it to the left
(RHR-1). When the metal plate is completely inside the field,
there is no eddy current if the field is uniform, since the flux
remains constant in this region. But when the plate leaves the
field on the right, flux decreases, causing an eddy current in the
clockwise direction that, again, experiences a force to the left,
further slowing the motion. A similar analysis of what happens
when the plate swings from the right toward the left shows that
its motion is also damped when entering and leaving the field.

When a slotted metal plate enters the field, as shown in Figure

3, an emf is induced by the change in flux, but it is less effective
because the slots limit the size of the current loops. Moreover,
adjacent loops have currents in opposite directions, and their
effects cancel. When an insulating material is used, the eddy
current is extremely small, and so magnetic damping on
insulators is negligible. If eddy currents are to be avoided in
conductors, then they can be slotted or constructed of thin
layers of conducting material separated by insulating sheets.