Harmonic finite element analysis for anisotropic viscoelasticity

A numerical methodology for predicting the linear anisotropic viscoelastic behavior of bodies that can be uniquely described in cylindrical coordinate s is devised. The methodology is an extension of the Fourier-finite element method and is based on a combination of finite element discretization in t he radial and longitudinal directions and Fourier decomposition in the angu lar direction. The proposed method is capable of handling inhomogeneous pol ar-orthotropic viscoelastic material properties. In general, the method pro vides dimensional reduction in the finite element formulation, which leads to a reduction in the complexity of the numerical model including the meshi ng process. Overall, the method is shown to be competent mainly because of the efficient exploitation of the angular description of the geometry and t he properties distribution. A numerical example is given for the analysis o f an orthotropic viscoelastic ring under asymmetric shear Loading.