On the space-time separated representation of integral linear viscoelastic models

The analysis of materials mechanical behavior involves many computational challenges. In this work, we are addressing the transient simulation of the mechanical behavior when the time of interest is much larger than the characteristic time of the mechanical response. This situation is encountered in many applications, as for example in the simulation of materials aging, or in structural analysis when small-amplitude oscillatory loads are applied during a long period, as it occurs for example when characterizing viscoelastic behaviors by calculating the complex modulus or when addressing fatigue simulations. Moreover, in the case of viscoelastic behaviors, the constitutive equation is many times expressed in an integral form avoiding the necessity of using internal variables, fact that results in an integro-differential model. In order to efficiently simulate such a model, we explore in this work the use of a space-time separated representation. (C) 2015 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.