Study of viscoelastic model for harmonic waves in non-homogeneous viscoelastic filaments

A five parameter viscoelastic model is developed to study harmonic waves propagating in the non-homogeneous viscoelastic filaments of varying density. The constitutive relation for five parameter model is first developed and then it is applied for harmonic waves in the specimen. In this study, it is assumed that density, rigidity and viscosity of the specimen i.e., rod are space dependent. The specimen is non-homogeneous, initially unstressed and at rest. The method of non-linear partial differential equation has been used for finding the dispersion equation of harmonic waves in the rods. A simple method is presented for reflections at the free end of the finite non-homogeneous viscoelastic rods. The harmonic wave propagation in viscoelastic rod is also presented numerically with MATLAB.