FRACTIONAL RELAXATION IN ANELASTIC SOLIDS

The ordinary relaxation phenomenon exhibiting a pure exponential decay is generalized by replacing the first time derivative by the alpha-fr actional derivative (0 < alpha less than or equal to 1) in the basic e quation. Mathematical aspects are discussed with emphasis on the relat ed continuous relaxation spectrum. From the physical point of view the thermoelastic coupling in anelastic solids is considered to take into account a temperature fractional relaxation due to diffusion. A visco elastic model, formerly introduced by Caputo and Mainardi, is then rec overed which generalizes the standard linear solid.