Detachment of an elastic beam from a viscoelastic support: A variational approach (Q1261939)

The paper is devoted to the analysis of failure in multi-layer composite materials. We use the principle of minimum free energy and derive a new energy criterion of the detachment. We propose a model of an aging viscoelastic material describing the viscoelastic behavior in terms of elastic objects. Using this model we propose an expression for the specific potential energy of an aging viscoelastic medium and derive a new formulation of the principle of minimum free energy for a viscoelastic system. A numerical method for solving nonlinear integro- differential equations describing the detachment process is developed, and its convergence is established.