  As the motions of nonconservative autonomous systems are typically not
periodic, the definition of nonlinear modes as periodic motions cannot be
applied in the classical sense. In this paper, it is proposed 'make the motions
periodic' by introducing an additional damping term of appropriate sign and
magnitude. It is shown that this generalized definition is particularly suited
to reflect the periodic vibration behavior induced by harmonic external forcing
or negative linear damping. In a large range, the energy dependence of modal
frequency, damping ratio and stability is reproduced well. The limitation to
isolated or weakly-damped modes is discussed.
