Assessment of damping models in FLAC

Geotechnical materials dissipate energy as mechanical waves propagate through them. This form of energy dissipation is known as material damping and can be introduced into formulations for dynamic analyses in different ways. Particularly, the finite difference code FLAC contains some alternatives to represent material damping in seismic analyses. In the present review paper these damping models were assessed simulating the free field response of a particular site in Mexico City, induced by the 1985 Michoacán Earthquake. It is concluded that, for the conditions studied here, Rayleigh damping turned out to be the most suitable alternative to represent energy dissipation of soil elements.