Accuracy of the modal strain energy method

The modal strain energy (MSE) method is an approximate technique for the approximate analysis of structures with frequency-dependent stiffness and damping matrices. In this paper, the accuracy of this method is investigated by computing the exact and approximate mean square responses of structures containing viscoelastic dampers to random excitation. Closed- form expressions of the mean square error are obtained for single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems under linear hysteretic damping and Maxwell-type damping. The accuracy of the MSE method applied to multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) structures with non-classical viscous damping, hysteretic damping and Maxwell-type damping is investigated.