Linear viscoelastic materials with environmental dependent properties

Abstract

This study expands on the linear theory of thermo-viscoelasticity to include a larger group of materials and environmental effects. The development rests on the observation that for many materials the creep curve which results from a test at one steady value of an environmental parameter can be mapped onto the creep curve at another value of the environmental parameter by: (1) displacing the curve along the logarithmic time axis, (2) scaling the initial elastic response, and (3) scaling the long term or residual response. A thickwall, environmental-dependent, incompressible, viseoelastic cylinder is analyzed for a material that can be modeled by the proposed mapping. It is found that this mapping can have a profound effect on the resulting stress distributions. Further, using the above mapping a constitutive relationship is developed for transient environmental fields.