Viscous damping

In continuum mechanics, viscous damping is a formulation of the damping phenomena, in which the source of damping force is modeled as a function of the volume, shape, and velocity of an object traversing through a real fluid with viscosity.[1]

Typical examples of viscous damping in mechanical systems include:

  • Fluid films between surfaces
  • Fluid flow around a piston in a cylinder
  • Fluid flow through an orifice
  • Fluid flow within a journal bearing

Viscous damping also refers to damping devices. Most often they damp motion by providing a force or torque opposing motion proportional to the velocity. This may be affected by fluid flow or motion of magnetic structures. The intended effect is to improve the damping ratio.

  • Shock absorbers in cars
  • Seismic retrofitting with viscous dampers[2]
  • Tuned mass dampers in tall buildings
  • Deployment actuators in spacecraft
  1. ^ Mechanical Vibrations, Rao, 5th ed.
  2. ^ Pollini, Nicolò; Lavan, Oren; Amir, Oded (2017). "Minimum-cost optimization of nonlinear fluid viscous dampers and their supporting members for seismic retrofitting". Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics. 46 (12): 1941–1961. doi:10.1002/eqe.2888. ISSN 1096-9845. S2CID 114445524.