A material point time integration procedure for anisotropic, thermo rheologically simple, viscoelastic solids

Abstract This study presents an effective and robust time integration procedure for general anisotropic, thermal rheologically simple viscoelasticity, that is suitable for implementation in a broad spectrum of general purpose nonlinear finite element programs. It features a judicious choice of state variables which record the extent of inelastic flow (creep), a stable backward Euler integration step, and a consistent tangent operator. Numerical examples involving homogeneous stress states such as uniaxial tension and simple shear, and non-uniform stress states such as a beam under tip load, were carried out by incorporating the present scheme into a general purpose FEM package. Excellent agreement with analytical results is observed.