Thermoviscoelastic Analysis of Three–Dimensional Orthotropic Polymeric Structures Using a General Finite Element Formulation

Boundary value problems involving linear thermoviscoelastic media are of the great importance in industries related to the mechanical and civil engineering. The numerical analysis ofviscoelastic problems has become increasingly important in recent years due to extensive use of the polymeric structures,and it should get more attention in computational sciences. Various numerical methods have been proposed for thermo–viscoelastic analysis of the polymeric structures with complexgeometries and more general material functions, in which temperature-time equivalence hypothesis are used with thereduced time instead of the real time. Chang et al. [1] utilized the viscoelastic theorem to derive the thermoviscoelastic stressstates in a thin film/substrate structure, and obtained a closedform expression of the stress. Kar and Kanoria [2] consideredthermoviscoelastic interaction due to step input of temperature on the stress free boundaries of a homogeneous viscoelastic isotropic spherical shell in the context of generalized theories of thermoelasticity. Experimental works and ABAQUS finite element analyses of nonlinear thermoviscoelastic behaviors ofmultilayered polymer composites under tension are presented by Muddasani et al. [3]. Also a boundary element formulation for 2–D linear thermoviscoelastic solid polymers subjected to body force of gravity has been presented by Ashrafi et al. [4].