Abstract
This paper presents a performance evaluation method for passive control systems with viscous damper expressed by Maxwell models. It is very difficult to estimate simply the maximum seismic response value by cause of the system property of frequency-dependency. In this study, eigen value problems with complex numbers are analyzed for the system, so as to investigate the dynamic characteristics. Generally, a single mass-spring system with Maxwell model has three degrees of freedom. That is, the three eigen values are derived, in which the two are conjugate complex numbers λ_1 and λ_1^^-, and the other is real number λ_1'. And the multiplication between the conjugate complex numbers makes the square value of natural circular frequency ω and the sum of them derives the value of -2hω, in which the variable h means the viscous damping factor. For convenient, the eigen value of real number is replaced by the value h_Mω. The result shows that Maxwell model and Voigt model have the same natural period and viscous damping factor for the case that the value h_M becomes bigger than unity. In addition to this, an empirical formula with those parameters h, ω and h_M is proposed in order to estimate the maximum seismic response values of the system.
