Dynamic Response of a Damped Large Space Structure: A New Fractional-Spectral Approach

Abstract

Passive and active damping in a large space structure (LSS) is important in terms of performance under a dynamic load. Structural damping mostly arises as the result of many energy dissipation mechanisms acting in a system. The purpose of this paper is to present the spectrally formulated finite element analysis for vicsoelastically damped LSS. Using a fractional derivative model, the non-linear damping characteristics of a viscoelastic material have been modelled. The proposed method is then been extended to derive the dynamic response of a large truss structure using a computer program.