  We study the distribution of star formation rate (SFR) and metallicity of
damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) using cosmological smoothed particle
hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the Lambda cold dark matter model. Our
simulations include a phenomenological model for feedback by galactic winds
which allows us to examine the effect of galactic outflows on the distribution
of SFR and metallicity of DLAs. For models with strong galactic winds, we
obtain good agreement with recent observations with respect to total neutral
hydrogen mass density, N_HI column-density distribution, abundance of DLAs, and
for the distribution of SFR in DLAs. However, we also find that the median
metallicity of simulated DLAs is higher than the values typically observed by
nearly an order of magnitude. This discrepancy with observations could be due
to shortcomings in the treatment of the supernova feedback or the multiphase
structure of the gas in our current simulations. Recent observations by Wolfe
et al. (2003a,b) seem to point to the same problem; i.e. the observed DLA
metallicities are much lower than those expected from the (either observed or
simulated) DLA star formation rates, a puzzle that has been known as the
``missing metals'' problem for the globally averaged quantities.
