An incremental formulation for the linear analysis of thin viscoelastic structures using generalized variables

This paper is concerned with the development of an incremental formulation in the time domain for the displacement and stress analysis of quasistatic, linear, thin viscoelastic structures undergoing mechanical deformation. By representing the viscoelastic behaviour of a material by a discrete creep spectrum and by an incremental constitutive equations, the difficulty of retaining the stress history in computer solutions is avoided. A complete general formulation of linear viscoelastic stress analysis is developed in terms of increments of midsurface strains and curvatures and corresponding stress resultants.