Analysis of thermo-rheologically complex structures with geometrical nonlinearity

A finite element computational procedure for the accurate analysis of quasistatic thermorheological complex structures response is developed. The geometrical nonlinearity, arising from large displacements and rotations (but small strains), is accounted for by the total Lagrangian description of motion. The Schapery's nonlinear single-integral viscoelastic constitutive model is modified for a time-stress-temperature-dependent behavior. The nonlinear thermo-viscoelastic constitutive equations are incrementalized leading to a recursive relationship and thereby the resulting finite element equations necessitate data storage from the previous time step only, and not the entire deformation history. The Newton-Raphson iterative scheme is employed to obtain a converged solution for the non-linear finite element equations. The developed numerical model is verified with the previously published works and a good agreement with them is found. The applicability of the developed model is demonstrated by analyzing two examples with different thermal/mechanical loading histories.