Rayleigh Damping C-1

Rayleigh Damping
Considering a dynamic system, we have:

(1)
where:

In the case of Rayleigh damping, [C] is determined as follows:

where:
are constants with units of and s respectively

[K] is the linear stiffness matrix of the structure constructed with initial
tangential stiffnesses. Thus, [C] consists of a mass-proportional term and
a stiffness-proportional term.

The procedure to determine and involves choosing appropriate

values of damping, to the degree possible, to the modes of linear system,
which is represented by equation (1).

Damping of mode i is quantified by the damping ratio, ξi, the ratio of the
mode’s damping to the critical value. If and are known, ξi can be
calculated from:

(2)

where: is the natural frequency rad of mode .

Thus, and can be set to give any damping ratio to any two modes.
The damping amount of other modes can also be computed from equation
(2).

This procedure results in a nearly constant value of damping for modes

with a frequency in the range from to where 1.

In this tutorial, RS2 is used to determine the appropriate damping

Rayleigh values for a model. We will follow the steps below:

1. Calculate the equilibrium state.

2. Apply dynamic conditions.
3. Run the undamped model.
4. Determine damping Rayleigh of the model.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-2

Topics Covered

 Project Settings

 Dynamic Loading

 Compute Natural Frequencies

 Interpretation of Dynamic Analysis Results

 Determination of Rayleigh damping

Geometry

Model

Start the RS2 Model program.

Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the toolbar or the Analysis menu.
Under the General page, define the units as being “Metric, stress as
kPa”. For this tutorial the Time Units need to be specified as "Seconds".
Do not exit the dialog.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-3

In the Project Settings dialog, select the Dynamic page. Check the
Dynamic Analysis checkbox in order to enable the dynamic analysis to
be conducted on specific stages. On this tab the general dynamic
parameters are defined, such as Rayleigh Damping. We will start with an
undamped model. Set Alpha M = Beta K = 0.

The remaining parameters are left at their default values.

In addition to an initial static stage, a dynamic stage will be added in

order to see the state of the model in its final state. The earthquake
acceleration history has a duration of 60 seconds but we will only study
the intermediate stage after 55 seconds.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-4

In the Project Settings dialog, select the Stages page. The first stage in
the analysis is by default always a static analysis stage. Insert a new
stage and check the Dynamic checkbox. In the time column the
simulation time at which each stage will end is inserted. Change the time
of the second stage to 55 seconds. Rename the second stage to
“Intermediate 1.”

Close the Project Settings dialog by pressing the OK button.

Boundaries
This model only requires an External boundary to define the geometry.
Select the Add External option in the Boundaries menu and enter the
coordinates shown in the figure at the beginning of this tutorial.

Mesh
Now generate the finite element mesh. Before we do this, let’s define the
parameters (type of mesh, number of elements, type of element) used in
the meshing process.

1. Select the Mesh workflow tab, and select the Mesh Setup option
from the Mesh menu.

2. In the Mesh Setup dialog, change the Mesh Type to Uniform, the
Element Type to 6 Noded Triangles and the number of elements
to 1500.

3. Close the Mesh Setup dialog by selecting the OK button.

Mesh the slope by selecting the Discretize and Mesh option from the
toolbar or the Mesh menu.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-5

Mesh and default boundary conditions

Boundary Conditions
Now we can set the boundary conditions. The portion of the external
boundary representing the ground surface (0,30 to 50,30 to 80,50 to
130,50) must be free to move in any direction.

1. Select the Loads & Restraints workflow tab, and select the
Free option in the Displacements menu.

2. Use the mouse to select the three line segments defining the
ground surface of the slope.

3. Right-click and select Done Selection.

TIP: you can also right-click on a boundary to define its boundary

conditions.

For this analysis the lateral boundaries will be allowed to move vertically
and only be restrained in the horizontal direction in Stage 1. In the
dynamic stage, we will remove all restraints.

Select: Displacements  Set Displacement

Enter Displacement in X direction = 1 and uncheck the Displacement in

Y direction checkbox.

Check the “Stage displacements” box and click on the Stage Factors
button. In the dialog, change the factor of Stage 1 to zero. Check the Free
box for the second stage.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-6

A factor of zero represents a zero displacement boundary condition. The

free checkbox means that the nodes in Stage 2 are free to move without
restraint. A factor of 1 means that the displacement will be equal to the
magnitude(s) entered in the Nodal Displacement dialog.

Therefore, we have removed all lateral restraints in the dynamic stage,

and set a zero displacement boundary condition in Stage 1. Select OK in
the Stage Factors dialog and select OK in the Nodal Displacement dialog.

Using the resulting selection tool, click on the lateral boundaries and
press Enter.

To free the bottom boundary:

Select: Displacements  Set Displacement

Enter Displacement in X direction = Displacement in Y direction = 1.

Check the “Stage displacements” box and click on the Stage Factors
button. In the dialog, change the factor of Stage 1 to zero. Check the Free
box for the dynamic stage.

Select OK in the Stage Factors dialog and select OK in the Nodal

Displacement dialog.

Using the resulting selection tool, click on the bottom boundary and press
Enter.

In Stage 1, the displacement boundary conditions should appear as

follows.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-7

Now click on the Intermediate 1 tab at the bottom left of the window. You
will notice that Intermediate 1 has no restraints, as defined.

Field Stress
Now define the in-situ stress field.

1. Select the Field Stress option in the Loading menu.

2. Change the Field Stress Type from Constant to Gravity

(gravitational stress distribution throughout the slope).

3. Check the Use actual ground surface checkbox. By using this

option, the program will automatically determine the ground
surface above every finite-element and define the vertical stress
in the element based on the weight of material above it.

4. Leave the horizontal stress ratios as 1, meaning hydrostatic

initial stresses (i.e. horizontal stress = vertical stress). If you
know the actual horizontal stress ratio when doing your own
slope model, you can use this information. However, the
horizontal stress distribution within a slope is rarely known, so
leaving the default hydrostatic stress field has shown to be a good
assumption. Select OK.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-8

Material Properties
Define the material properties of the soil that comprises the slope.

Select the Materials & Staging workflow tab, and select Define
Materials from the toolbar or the Properties menu.

We will only be using Material 1 in this tutorial. Make sure the Initial
Element Loading is set to Field Stress & Body Force (both in-situ stress
and material self-weight are applied). Enter 19 kN/m3 for the Unit
Weight.

For Strength Parameters, make sure the Failure Criterion is set to Mohr-
Coulomb. Set the Material type to Elastic. Set the peak Tensile Strength
and the peak Cohesion to 5 kPa. Set the peak Friction Angle to 38°. For
Elastic Properties, select the Stiffness tab. Enter 100 000 kPa for the
Young’s Modulus and 0.4 for the Poisson ratio. Press the OK button to
save the properties and close the dialog.

Boundary Conditions
We will now assign dynamic boundary conditions to the boundaries of the
model. Ensure you have selected the Dynamic workflow tab, and that
you are viewing the second stage. Right-click on one of the lateral sides of
the model and select “Set Transmit BC,” as shown. Do this for both
lateral sides of the model. Then right-click on the bottom boundary and
select “Set Absorb BC.”

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-9

Save the model using the Save option in the File menu, as Undamped
Model.

Dynamic Load
We are now going to input the earthquake data for the 1985 Mexico City
earthquake as a dynamic load. This data can be found in Sheet 2 of the
Excel Sheet in your installation folder. For Windows 7 and 8 the file path
is:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Rocscience\Phase2 9.0 Examples\tutorials

Open the Excel file titled “Mexico City 1985 - Mesa Bivradora C. U.”

Select: Dynamic  Define Dynamic Loads

Rename “Dynamic Load 1” to “Mexico City Velocity Data.” Change the

Type to Velocity and check the “Compliant Base” box. Click the Define
button and copy and paste the time data (Sheet 2, Column A) and the
velocity data (Sheet 2, Column C) from the Excel sheet into the Velocity
vs. Time dialog. The dialog should look as follows:

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-10

Click OK in the Velocity vs. Time dialog and in the Dynamic Loads
dialog.

Select: Dynamic  Add Dynamic Load

In the resulting dialog, the Load Function should be the dynamic load we
have just defined and it should be installed at stage 2. Click OK. Using
the selection tool, click on the bottom boundary and press Enter. The
boundary should look as follows:

Time Query
A number of time steps will occur between the defined stage times; RS2
will not output data for all the nodes for these intermediate time steps.
However, the modeler does allow the user to specify time query points in
the mesh. Time Queries record the dynamic data for all dynamic time
steps occurring in the simulation. For this model three time queries will
be created.

Select Add Solid Time History Query from the toolbar or the Dynamic
> Time Query menu. Clicking anywhere in the slope will place a query at
that point, or the exact co-ordinates may be typed in. Add time query
points at the following locations on the slope: (80, 50), (80, 35), and (80,
20). Press Enter after each coordinate pair. Press Esc once you have
entered all time queries.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-11

Results

We are now ready to view the results. Select the Compute button from
the toolbar or the Analysis menu. Once the computation is complete,
select the Interpret button from the toolbar or the Analysis menu. Click
on the Intermediate 1 tab at the bottom left of the window to view the
results.

Right-click on the top-most time query point and select “Graph Time
Query Data.” Set the Vertical Axis to “X velocity” and the Horizontal Axis
to “Time,” and click Plot. Right-click on the plot and select “Copy Data.”

Without closing Interpreter, return to the RS2 modeller.

Select: Dynamic  Define Dynamic Loads

Create a new dynamic load titled “Power Spectrum Analysis,” and click
the Define button. Paste the copied data into the dialog. Delete the first
few rows which contain text. Check the “Power Spectrum” box and click
on the “Power Spectrum” button. Click “Reset min/max” in the dialog.

We can see from the graph that most of the power occurs between the 0
and 1.9 Hz marks. The critical power occurs around 1.2 Hz.

Similarly for query point (80, 35) and query point (80, 20), the critical
frequencies occur at approximately 1.2 Hz.

Therefore, we can see that most of the important frequencies of the model
occur under the 1.9 Hz mark. The damping Rayleighs in this case will be
determined so that the average damping for all of the natural frequencies
from (0 Hz to 1.9 Hz) is 5%.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-12

Click Cancel in the Power Spectrum and the dynamic loads dialog.

Close Interpret and save the model. Now select File > Save As and save
the model as Damped Model.

Select: Dynamic  Natural Frequencies  Compute Natural Frequencies.

Set the Min Frequency to 0.005 (to avoid extremely small, negligible
values) and the Max Frequency to 1.9 Hz, and select Compute. The
computation may take several minutes. Once complete, select Save and
View Results.

Notice that all the frequencies displayed fall in our range of 0.005 to 1.9
Hz.

In the Results window, we want each individual damping value to be as

close as possible to 5%. Through manually adjusting the values of and
, you may arrive at the following values:

= 0.20.

= 0.0089

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

 Rayleigh Damping C-13

Click on “Apply alpha/beta to the Project Setting” to apply the

parameters to the project.

It will be left as an exercise for the user to analyze the model with the
new damping coefficients.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual