An Experimental Study of a Nonlinear Viscoelastic Solid in Uniaxial Tension

Abstract

The multiple integral form of the constitutive relation for nonlinear viscoelasticity is correlated with experimental results for the case of uniaxial tension of a polymeric material. Special forms of the kernel functions are assumed in which the arguments of these functions are taken in additive form. This permits the development of a simple procedure for determining the material functions from stress-relaxation tests. The resulting constitutive relation, for a particular material, is used to predict the load response to single and consecutive constant strain-rate programs and the results are compared with experimentally obtained data.