An accurate Galerkin-BEM approach for the modeling of quasi-static viscoelastic problems.

The present paper deals with the development of a Galerkin Boundary Element Method (Galerkin-BEM) approach applied to the numerical simulation of plane and half-plane quasi-static viscoelastic problems. This approach makes use of a half-plane viscoelastic fundamental solution, thus avoiding the full discretization of the half-plane and consequently reducing the computational requirements of the proposed model. Time-domain responses are obtained by means of the viscoelastic reciprocal theorem and its temporal integrations are evaluated by using the Stieltjes convolutions. Numerical simulations are carried out in order to assess the accuracy and the applicability of the proposed approach to viscoelastic problems by comparing its results with those provided by the numerical and analytical solutions reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]