Designer Viscoelastic Materials Tailored to Minimize Probabilistic Failures for Thermal Stress-Induced Dynamic Column Creep Buckling

ABSTRACT

The dynamic response of linear viscoelastic temperature-dependent prismatic columns is investigated under axial compressive loads and due to thermal stresses and moments. Creep buckling instabilities and probabilities of material failures are analyzed to determine column life or survival times. Optimum designer materials are studied to minimize thermal stress and axial load effects while concurrently lowering failure probabilities and extending survival times.

Keywords:

• Dynamic creep buckling
• Designer viscoelastic materials
• Probabilistic failures
• Survival times
• Thermal stresses

This paper is dedicated with deep gratitude to our family's dear friend Harriet Tamen, attorney at law in New York City, who tirelessly provided her professional services to successfully correct a pervasive historical aberration.

Portions of this paper were presented at the Sixth International Congress on Thermal Stresses, May 26–29, 2005, Vienna, Austria [1].