Modeling of viscoelastic contact-impact problems

An accurate finite element (FE) model for analyzing the response of viscoelastic structure under low-velocity impact is presented. Generalized standard linear solid (Wiechert) model is adopted to simulate the internal damping of the structure, because its capability of describing both creep and relaxation phenomena adequately. Newmark time integration scheme is proposed to transfer the problem into a static one for each time increment. The incremental convex programming method is modified to accommodate viscoelastic dynamic-contact problems. The Lagrange multiplier technique is selected to incorporate the contact condition. One, two and three-dimensional finite element model is presented to compare between the elastic and viscoelastic materials. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.