Material Damping of Concrete under Cyclic Axial Compression

Abstract

Damping properties have important effects on the dynamic behavior of civil engineering structures. However, the influence of load on the material damping of concrete has not been studied systematically. This paper used an experimental strategy to investigate the effects of stress amplitude, loading frequency, and stress level on the material damping of concrete. The experimental results showed that equivalent damping increased with the increase of stress amplitude and was slightly influenced by the loading frequency and stress level. Subsequently, the classical Kelvin model was used to simulate the energy dissipation property of concrete under cyclic axial compression. The viscous coefficient of the Kelvin model was identified based on the experimental data, and a correction was conducted to describe the frequency-independent energy dissipation property of concrete. Comparison with experimental results shows that the modified model produces a high-accuracy solution for use in predicting the energy dissipation behavior of concrete material.