Seismosoft | Earthquake Engineering Solutions

Hi,

I've read the Help System and some texts suggested there about damping (Clough-Penzien and Hall) and I've looked at some related topics in this forum, but I'm still a bit confused. For a 3-storey R/C building, what's the best way of considering viscous damping? I'm thinking of tangent stiffness-proportional, but it is said that it may cause convergence difficulties, so I'm really not sure. For example, in Hall [2005] it is concluded that any of the possible ways (mass, stiffness or both) may lead to erroneous results, so my question is what would you do?

And, after choosing one of the options, is there a way of spotting exagerated damping forces?

Thank you

André,

We very much believe that tangent stiffness proportional damping is the best approach. We suggest you to read the publication by Priestly&Grant, also cited in the Help System.

We also advise you to run parametric exercises (using models with and without damping) if you wish to appreciate the effects that different options will have on the results.

Seismosoft Support

I had already read that publication of Priestley & Grant too, which is clear about the best option, although as stated in the Help System, there is no consensus. Thank you very much for the confirmation. As always, your help has been very important.