Transient thermomechanical responses of multilayered viscoelastic composite structure with non-idealized interfacial conditions in the context of generalized thermoviscoelasticity theory with time-fractional order strain

Nowadays, a multilayered viscoelastic composite structure stands as one of the most representative active/passive vibration isolator and high-efficient damper to avoid unwanted vibrations in civil and ocean engineering, which is commonly applied in harsh non-uniform temperature environment (e.g., high heat-flux, drastic changes of temperature, etc.). In such a case, thermoviscoelastic response analysis is of great importance for the safety design of viscoelastic composites, and so a thorough and comprehensive study on this issue is imperatively needed. This work aims to conduct an analytical study of transient thermomechanical responses of multilayered viscoelastic composite structure under time-dependent heating loads. In the context of generalized thermoviscoelasticity theory with time-fractional order strain, a composite laminated viscoelastic plate is chosen as the analytical model while governing equations of each homogeneous layer accounting for non-idealized interfacial conditions are systematically formulated. Then, a semi-analytical approach via Laplace transform is adopted to deal with the problem. The effects of fractional order parameters and material constants’ ratio on the structural dynamic responses are fully discussed to provide new insights and basic guidelines for vibration control and thermal management of viscoelastic composites, especially for the surface coating at the interface between any two adjacent viscoelastic layers.