An iterative approach for nonproportionally damped systems

Modal analysis of nonproportionally damped linear dynamic systems is considered. Dynamic response of such systems can be expressed by a modal series in terms of complex modes. Normally state-space based methods or approximate perturbation methods are necessary for the computation of complex modes. In this paper, an iterative method to calculate complex modes from classical normal modes for general linear systems is proposed. A simple numerical algorithm is developed to implement the iterative method. The new method is illustrated using a numerical example.