On the interconversion between viscoelastic material functions

The problem of numerical conversion of different viscoelastic material functions is reviewed. A number of approximation formulae are given, together with bounds for their errors. 1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM It is well known"3 that the linear viscoelastic behaviour of materials obeying the superposition principle may be characterized by various material functions, for instance: (a) Creep compliance, J(t), defined as the strain as a function of time, t, produced by a unit step in stress at time zero; (b) Relaxation modulus, G(t), defined as the stress effected by a unit step in strain at time zero; (c) Storage compliance, J'fro), and loss compliance, J"(w), defined as functions of angular frequency co; these are the amplitudes of the in-phase component and the out-of-phase component of strain under conditions of steady state response to a harmonic stress of angular frequency co and unit amplitude; (d) Storage modulus, G'(w), and loss modulus, G"(w), defined as the amplitudes of the in-phase component and the out-of-phase component of stress under conditions of steady state response to a harmonic strain of angular frequency co and unit amplitude; (e) Retardation spectrum, f(r), as a function of retardation time, 'r; it is defined by the equation: J(t) = J0 + fir) {1 — exp(—t/r)} dt + t/ (1) where J0 is the limit of the creep compliance for t —+0 and l/tj is the limit of the rate of the creep compliance for t —* f(r) is assumed to be a nonnegative function of retardation time. This assumption is supported by overwhelming experimental evidnce; it manifests itself experimentally by the fact that the rate of creep is a completely monotonic function of time [J(t) 0; J(t) 0; J(t) 0; etc.]. 219