On the theory of the viscoelastic behavior of soft polymers in moderately large deformations

Abstract

Restricting consideration to deformations in which time shift invariance is preserved, a series of models was developed for the prediction of the viscoelastic behavior of isotropic soft polymers. The models describe the time dependent stress through the Boltzmann superposition integral incorporating into it an appropriately chosen nonlinear measure of strain. The theory was developed in its most general threedimensional form. It requires a single time function, the relaxation modulus of linear viscoelastic theory. In its simplest form the strain measure contains a single material parameter.