Abstract :
Incomputingthedynamicresponseofaconnectedsystemwithmultiplecomponentshavingdissimilardampingcharacteristics,oftenreferredtoasnon-classicallydampedsystemsuchasnuclearpowerplantpipingsystemssupportedbystiffstructures,oneneedstodefinethesystem-leveldampingbaseduponthedampinginformationofcomponents.Thispaperpresentsageneralformulationforcomputingrigorousexplicitdampingmatricesformultiplyconnected,non-classicallydamped,coupledsystems.ThealgorithmderivedwasbasedonasynthesisprocessdevelopedbyHurty[AIAAJ.3(4)(1965)],inwhichthreedifferentkindsofdampingwereutilizedtodescribetheenergydissipationofthesystem.ItwasalsoshownthatthesystemdampingdevelopedbythesynthesisapproachcouldreducetodampingformulationsavailableintheliteraturesuchasthoseofGuptaetal.[Seismicresponseofnon-classicallydampedsystems.Nucl.Eng.Design,vol.91,1986]andPajuheshetal.[Determinationofcompositedampingmatrices.In:ProceedingsonFifthWorldConferenceonEarthquakeEngineering,vol.1,1973]whenthesameassumptionswereappliedfortheinterfaceconnectivity.ThemethodpresentedinthispaperwasusedindevelopingtherigoroussystemmatricesfortheBNLsolutiontoasetofbenchmarkproblemsanalyzedintheNRC-BNLbenchmarkprogramfortheevaluationofthestate-of-the-artmethodsandcomputerprogramsfornon-classicallydampedsystems[BenchmarkProgramfortheEvaluationofMethodstoAnalyzeNon-ClassicallyDampedCoupledSystems(2000)].ThedetailsoftheNRC-BNLbenchmarkprogramarepresentedinacompanionpaper[ANRC-BNLBenchmarkEvaluationofSeismicAnalysisMethodsforNon-ClassicallyDampedCoupledSystems(inpress)].
