This graduate text on viscoelastic materials addresses design applications as diverse as earplugs, computer disks and medical diagnostics.

This volume of proceedings consists of invited papers on the following and related subject areas: Composite Materials; Experimental Methods in Stress Analysis; Fracture Mechanics; Structural Stability; Non-Linear Behaviour of Materials and Structures; Plasticity; Numerical Methods; Structural Dynamics.

Detailing a number of structural analysis problems such as residual welding stresses and distortions and behaviour of thin-walled rods loaded in bending, this text also explores mathematical function minimization methods, expert systems and optimum design of welded box beams.

Viscoelastic Solids covers the mathematical theory of viscoelasticity and physical insights, causal mechanisms, and practical applications. The book: presents a development of the theory, addressing both transient and dynamic aspects as well as emphasizing linear viscoelasticity synthesizes the structure of the theory with the aim of developing physical insight illustrates the methods for the solution of stress analysis problems in viscoelastic objects explores experimental methods for the characterization of viscoelastic materials describes the phenomenology of viscoelasticity in a variety of materials, including polymers, metals, high damping alloys, rock, piezoelectric materials, cellular solids, dense composite materials, and biological materials analyzes high damping and extremely low damping provides the theory of viscoelastic composite materials, including examples of various types of structure and the relationships between structure and mechanical properties contains examples on the use of viscoelastic materials in preventing and alleviating human suffering Viscoelastic Solids also demonstrates the use of viscoelasticity for diverse applications, such as earplugs, gaskets, computer disks, satellite stability, medical diagnosis, injury prevention, vibration abatement, tire performance, sports, spacecraft explosions, and music.

The book provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on the physical properties of polymers including, viscoelasticity, flammability, miscibility, optical properties, surface properties and more. Containing carefully selected reprints from the Wiley's renowned Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, this reference features the same breadth and quality of coverage and clarity of presentation found in the original.