Development of a viscoelastic continuum damage model for cyclic loading

A previously developed spectrum model for linear viscoelastic behavior of solids is used to describe the rate-dependent damage growth of a time dependent material under cyclic loading. Through the use of the iterative solution of a special Volterra integral equation, the cyclic strain history is described. The spectrum-based model is generalized for any strain rate and any uniaxial load history to formulate the damage function. Damage evolution in the body is described through the use of a rate-type evolution law which uses a pseudo strain to express the viscoelastic constitutive equation with damage. The resulting damage function is used to formulate a residual strength model. The methodology presented is demonstrated by comparing the peak values of the computed cyclic strain history as well as the residual strength model predictions to the experimental data of a polymer matrix composite