Damping may be introduced into a transient, harmonic, or damped modal analysis as well as a response spectrum or PSD analysis. The type of damping allowed depends on the analysis, as follows:
The damping matrix, [C], may be used in transient as well as substructure generation:
In its most general form, the damping matrix is composed of the following components:
(14–22)  | 
where:
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
      | 
DMPSFreq on TRNOPT) | 
Element damping matrices are available for:
| LINK11 | Linear Actuator | MATRIX50 | Superelement | 
| COMBIN14 | Spring-Damper | SURF153 | 2-D Structural Surface Effect | 
| MATRIX27 | Stiffness, Damping, or Mass Matrix | SURF154 | 3-D Structural Surface Effect | 
| COMBIN37 | Control | SURF159 | General Axisymmetric Surface | 
| FLUID38 | Dynamic Fluid Coupling | MPC184 | Multipoint Constraint (Joint) Element | 
| COMBIN40 | Combination | COMBI214 | Bearing | 
| CONTA173 | Surface-to-Surface Contact | CONTA174 | Surface-to-Surface Contact | 
, the structural stiffness matrix, may include plasticity and/or
   large-deflection effects (that is, 
may be the tangent matrix). In the case of a rotating structure, it may also
   include spin softening or rotating damping effects. Stiffness matrices generated by contact
   elements are not included in the damping matrix generation.
For the special case of thin-film fluid behavior, damping parameters may be computed for structures and used in a subsequent structural analysis (see Extraction of Modal Damping Parameter for Squeeze Film Problems).
For damped modal analysis (ANTYPE,MODAL with
   MODOPT,QRDAMP or MODOPT,DAMP), the damping matrix
     is complex and is written as:
(14–23)  | 
where:
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
| 
      | 
The damping matrix () used in harmonic analyses
    (ANTYPE,HARM with 
Method = FULL, AUTO, or VT on
   the HROPT command) is composed of the following components:
(14–24)  | 
where:
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
      | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
The input exciting frequency, , is defined in the range between
 and
 via:
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
FREQB on HARFRQ
     command) | 
FREQE on HARFRQ
     command) | 
Substituting Equation 14–24 into the harmonic response equation of motion (Equation 15–60) and rearranging terms yields:
(14–25)  | 
The complex stiffness matrix in the first row of the equation consists of the normal
   stiffness matrix augmented by the structural damping terms given by , 
, 
,
, and 
 which produce an imaginary contribution. Structural damping is independent of
   the forcing frequency, 
, and produces a damping force proportional to displacement (or strain). The
   terms 
, 
, and
 are damping coefficients and not damping ratios.
The second row consists of the usual viscous damping terms and is linearly dependent on the
   forcing frequency, , and produces forces proportional to velocity.
Viscoelastic damping  (see Harmonic Viscoelasticity) introduces a contribution to the complex stiffness matrix via the
   loss moduli. Note that the stresses are also computed using the loss moduli, whereas in the case
   of structural damping, which is a phenomenological model, the stresses are computed only using
   the real material properties and g is not used in the stress calculations.
For mode-superposition based analyses:
the damping matrix is not explicitly calculated, but rather the damping is defined
   directly in terms of a damping ratio . The damping ratio is the ratio between actual damping and
   critical damping.
The damping ratio  for mode i is the combination of: 
(14–26)  | 
where:
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
The modal damping ratio  can be defined for each mode directly via the MDAMP command
   (undamped modal analyses only).
Alternatively, for the case where multiple materials are present whose damping ratios are
   different, an effective mode-dependent damping ratio  can be defined in the modal analysis if material-dependent damping is defined
   and the element results are calculated during the expansion (MXPAND,,,,YES).
   This effective damping ratio is computed from the ratio of the strain energy in each material in
   each mode using:
(14–27)  | 
where:
| Nm = number of materials | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
These mode-dependent (and material-dependent) ratios, , will be carried over into the subsequent mode-superposition or spectrum
   analysis. Note that any manually-defined damping ratios (MDAMP) will overwrite
   those computed in the modal analysis via Equation 14–27.
For harmonic analyses (ANTYPE,HARM with HROPT,MSUP), constant structural damping may also be included. In this case, the harmonic equation of motion in modal coordinates (Equation 15–75) is:
(14–28)  | 
where:
| 
 | 
| 
      | 
| 
 | 
| 
      | 
| 
 | 
Equation 14–26 presumes Rayleigh damping (see the derivation in Mode-Superposition Method). With Rayleigh (or proportional) damping, the damping in the modal basis leads to the diagonal entries of Equation 14–26.
(14–29)  | 
For QR Damp modal analyses (MODOPT,QRDAMP), the damping may be from non-Rayleigh sources such as element damping or Coriolis damping. The damping in the modal basis is no longer diagonal, and the full matrix must be retained in the mode-superposition transient or harmonic analysis:
(14–30)  | 
where:
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
| 
 | 
      DMPSFreq on TRNOPT). |