Parameter identification for viscoelastic materials

Starting from the general stress-strain relation for a linear Boltzmann-Volterra material, which is in agreement with the principle of inertia, a new identification procedure is proposed. Instead of running one long-range relaxation experiment, following asingle suitably specified deformation history, material characterization is done using the data ofn short relaxation experiments followingn different deformation histories. To interpret these data a direct non-iterative algorithm has been developed. Compared with other methods, for example curve fitting by using Gauss' method, this direct method is numerically stable and allows a simple direct evaluation of the error due to the scattering of experimental data. The method has been applied to the determination of the relaxation times of an unsaturated polyester material.