Component mode synthesis combining robust enriched Ritz approach for viscoelastically damped structures

The effective design of viscoelastic dampers as applied to real-world complex engineering structures can be conveniently carried out by using modern numerical optimization and/or model updating techniques. However, the large number of exact evaluations of the cost functions, combined with the typically high dimensions of large finite element models of industrial structures incorporating viscoelastic materials, makes the numerical processes very costly, sometimes unfeasible. Those difficulties motivate the study reported herein, in which a general strategy to improve the standard condensation methods by taking into account a priori information of the modifications into the viscoelastic zones is introduced. The proposed method can be used with any condensation procedure, including direct reductions and component mode synthesis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.