What is the definition of dampening?

Answer 1

The actual term is "Damping"

"Damping". unfortunately has many definitions across several different physical areas.

The most general way I can explain it is "A force or effect which moderates some action".

Yes, that's very generic, out of necessity.

In electronics, "Damping" is a term mostly out of style but the concept of it is very important. It can be considered a method of "averaging" within a control system; a system which manages any sorts of things but attempts to maintain usually one, but sometimes multiple variables to correct values, like temperature or pressure.

In air flow, damping also has more than a single meaning. The main one being a means of controlling airflow. Most heating/cooling systems have devices called "dampers". They are just simply adjustable blockages, or baffles or similar means, to block the airflow and force other routes within the system.

Fireplaces have damping to control airflow out of the chimney called, what else... a damper. It's used to slow the airflow as much as possible while still allowing the fire's combustion products to go "up" and not into the house. Burning fireplaces are basically huge air pumps. they don't natively actually "heat" the air, but rather heat via radiant infrared and reflected heat which is also infrared. I'm referring to classic chimney fireplaces. Wood stoves, on the other hand, are actually a space heater because the fire is enclosed in a "box" IN a room.

In general, "damping " really means "moderating" and/or "controlling rate of change".

Again, it's unfortunate that the term applies to numerous uses. As such, there's no single answer in general other then "moderating".

I'd love to give a more precise answer but that fully depends on what application one is referring to.

For verification, I looked this up:

An official general definition is this:

---- "The capacity built into a mechanical or electrical device to prevent excessive correction and the resulting instability or oscillatory conditions."

----

i.e. an averaging and regulatory mechanism to avoid wide changes in the system's contol functions.

But again, this definition does not cover all uses of the term. i.e. a fireplace doesn't control itself, you do. In this case, the controller is you, your brain.