On the response of nonlinear viscoelastic materials in creep and stress relaxation experiments in the lubricated squeeze flow setting

Abstract

Rigorous analysis of the response of nonlinear materials to step inputs requires one to simultaneously handle the discontinuity, differentiation, and nonlinearity. This task is however beyond the reach of the standard theories such as the classical theory of distributions and presents a considerable mathematical difficulty. New advanced mathematical tools are necessary to handle the challenge. An elegant and relatively easy-to-use framework capable of accomplishing the task is provided by the Colombeau algebra, which is a generalisation of the classical theory of distributions to the nonlinear setting. We use the Colombeau algebra formalism and derive explicit formulae describing the response of incompressible Maxwell viscoelastic fluid subject to step load/deformation in the lubricated squeeze flow setting.