Modeling and simulation of anisotropic linear viscoelasticity

Abstract

A constitutive material law for linear viscoelasticity in the time domain is presented. It does not only allow for anisotropic elastic behavior but also for anisotropic (i.e. direction dependent) relaxation response. Under the assumption of thermo–rheological simple material behavior, the model is capable to account for direction dependent time–temperature-shift functions. The application is demonstrated for a linear viscoelastic matrix material reinforced by linear viscoelastic continuous fibers. The effective orthotropic linear viscoelastic response of the composite is computed by means of a periodic unit cell approach. These data, evaluated at different temperatures, are used to calibrate the input for the developed material law. Predictions from the latter are compared to the results from the unit cell simulations.