Analytical Simulations of Optimum Anisotropic Linear Viscoelastic Damping Properties

In a previous paper (Hilton & Yi 1992), a systematic study was undertaken to determine how shapes of relaxation–time functions affect damping characteristics of isotropic viscoelastic materials. The significant parameters were the instantaneous and fully relaxed moduli (Regions A and E on Fig. 1), the two “knees” (B and D), the central slope (C) and anisotropic shift functions. The sensitivity of these parameters is not of equal strength in their effect on material damping characteristics. In the fully anisotropic case with its 21 relaxation functions, 147 distinct parameters of the above type can be identified as well as their many combinations. In the present pilot demonstration study an inverse approach to parametric sensitivity is adopted. It consists of systematically examining such sensitivities on a one-on-one “what if” basis in order to categorize influences of relaxation modulus shapes and parameters on stored and dissipated energies and on material responses under various loading conditions. This protocol of numerical simulations is used on analytically generated