Identification of the parameters of the Kelvin-Voigt and the Maxwell fractional models, used to modeling of viscoelastic dampers

Fractional models are becoming more and more popular because their ability of describing the behaviour of viscoelastic dampers using a small number of parameters. An important difficulty, connected with these models, is the estimation of model parameters. A family of methods for identification of the parameters of both the Kelvin-Voigt fractional model and the Maxwell fractional model are presented in this paper. Moreover, the equations of hysteresis curves are derived for fractional models. One of the methods presented used the properties of hysteresis curves. The validity and effectiveness of procedures have been tested using artificial and real experimental data. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.