Analysis of multi degree of freedom systems with fractional derivative elements of rational order

In this paper a novel method based on complex eigenanalysis in the state variables domain is proposed to uncouple the set of rational order fractional differential equations governing the dynamics of multi-degree-of-freedom system. The traditional complex eigenanalysis is appropriately modified to be applicable to the coupled fractional differential equations. This is done by expanding the dimension of the problem and solving the system in the state variable domain. Examples of applications are given pertaining to multi-degree-of-freedom systems under both deterministic and stochastic loads.

Electrical analogous in viscoelasticity

In this paper, electrical analogous models of fractional hereditary materials are introduced. Based on recent works by the authors, mechanical models of materials viscoelasticity behavior are firstly approached by using fractional mathematical operators. Viscoelastic models have elastic and viscous components which are obtained by combining springs and dashpots. Various arrangements of these elements can be used, and all of these viscoelastic models can be equivalently modeled as electrical circuits, where the spring and dashpot are analogous to the capacitance and resistance, respectively. The proposed models are validated by using modal analysis. Moreover, a comparison with numerical expe…

On the dynamics of non-local fractional viscoelastic beams under stochastic agencies

Abstract Non-local viscoelasticity is a subject of great interest in the context of non-local theories. In a recent study, the authors have proposed a non-local fractional beam model where non-local effects are represented as viscoelastic long-range volume forces and moments, exchanged by non-adjacent beam segments depending on their relative motion, while local effects are modelled by elastic classical stress resultants. Long-range interactions have been given a fractional constitutive law, involving the Caputo's fractional derivative. This paper introduces a comprehensive numerical approach to calculate the stochastic response of the non-local fractional beam model under Gaussian white no…

Fractional multiphase hereditary materials: Mellin Transforms and Multi-Scale Fractances

The rheological features of several complex organic natural tissues such as bones, muscles as well as of complex artificial polymers are well described by power-laws. Indeed, it is well-established that the time-dependence of the stress and the strain in relaxation/creep test may be well captured by power-laws with exponent β ∈ [0, 1]. In this context a generalization of linear springs and linear dashpots has been introduced in scientific literature in terms of a mechanical device dubbed spring-pot. Recently the authors introduced a mechanical analogue to spring-pot built upon a proper arrangements of springs and dashpots that results in Elasto-Viscous (EV) materials, as β ∈ [0, 1/2] and Vi…

Complex fractional moments for the characterization of the probabilistic response of non-linear systems subjected to white noises

In this chapter the solution of Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov type equations is pursued with the aid of Complex Fractional Moments (CFMs). These quantities are the generalization of the well-known integer-order moments and are obtained as Mellin transform of the Probability Density Function (PDF). From this point of view, the PDF can be seen as inverse Mellin transform of the CFMs, and it can be obtained through a limited number of CFMs. These CFMs’ capability allows to solve the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation governing the evolutionary PDF of non-linear systems forced by white noise with an elegant and efficient strategy. The main difference between this new approach and the other one based …

Prestress and experimental tests on fractional viscoelastic materials

Creep and/or Relaxation tests on viscoelastic materials show a power-law trend. Based upon Boltzmann superposition principle the constitutive law with a power-law kernel is ruled by the Caputo’s fractional derivative. Fractional constitutive law posses a long memory and then the parameters obtained by best fitting procedures on experimental data are strongly influenced by the prestress on the specimen. As in fact during the relaxation test the imposed history of deformation is not instantaneously applied, since a unit step function may not be realized by the test machine. Aim of this paper, it is shown that, the experimental procedure, and in particular the initial ramp to reach the constan…

Viscoelasticity: an electrical point of view

Time dependent hereditary properties of complex materials are well described by power-laws with real order exponent. This experimental observation and analogous electrical experiments, yield a description of these properties by using fractional-order operators. In this paper, elasto-viscous and visco-elastic behaviors of fractional order hereditary materials are firstly described by using fractional mathematical operators, based on recent work of some of the authors. Then, electrical analogous models are introduced. Viscoelastic models have elastic and viscous components which can be obtained by combining springs and dashpots: these models can be equivalently viewed as electrical circuits, …

Stochastic Analysis of a Nonlocal Fractional Viscoelastic Bar Forced by Gaussian White Noise

Recently, a displacement-based nonlocal bar model has been developed. The model is based on the assumption that nonlocal forces can be modeled as viscoelastic (VE) long-range interactions mutually exerted by nonadjacent bar segments due to their relative motion; the classical local stress resultants are also present in the model. A finite element (FE) formulation with closed-form expressions of the elastic and viscoelastic matrices has also been obtained. Specifically, Caputo's fractional derivative has been used in order to model viscoelastic long-range interaction. The static and quasi-static response has been already investigated. This work investigates the stochastic response of the non…

Analytical Solutions of Viscoelastic Nonlocal Timoshenko Beams

A consistent nonlocal viscoelastic beam model is proposed in this paper. Specifically, a Timoshenko bending problem, where size- and time-dependent effects cannot be neglected, is investigated. In order to inspect scale phenomena, a stress-driven nonlocal formulation is used, whereas to simulate time-dependent effects, fractional linear viscoelasticity is considered. These two approaches are adopted to develop a new Timoshenko bending model. Analytical solutions and application samples of the proposed formulation are presented. Moreover, in order to show influences of viscoelastic and size effects on mechanical response, parametric analyses are provided. The contributed results can be usefu…

Special Section on Fractional Operators in the Analysis of Mechanical Systems Under Stochastic Agencies

A Non-Local Mode-I Cohesive Model for Ascending Thoracic Aorta Dissections (ATAD)

This paper presents a non-local interface mechanical model to describe aortic dissection. In this regard, the mode-I debonding problem based on a cohesive zone modeling is endowed with non-local terms to include long-range interactions that are present in multi-layered biological tissue. Such non-local effects are related to the collagen fibers that transmit forces between non-adjacent elements. Numerical simulations are provided with different values of the non-local parameters in order to show the effect of the non-locality during the debonding processes.

Fractional characteristic times and dissipated energy in fractional linear viscoelasticity

Abstract In fractional viscoelasticity the stress–strain relation is a differential equation with non-integer operators (derivative or integral). Such constitutive law is able to describe the mechanical behavior of several materials, but when fractional operators appear, the elastic and the viscous contribution are inseparable and the characteristic times (relaxation and retardation time) cannot be defined. This paper aims to provide an approach to separate the elastic and the viscous phase in the fractional stress–strain relation with the aid of an equivalent classical model (Kelvin–Voigt or Maxwell). For such equivalent model the parameters are selected by an optimization procedure. Once …

Stochastic dynamic analysis of structures with fractional viscoelastic constitutive laws

The main purpose of this thesis is to provide a new way to correctly perform stochastic analysis of structures with viscoelastic constitutive law. The reason for this kind of problem relates the fact that structures with viscoelastic materials are built in many areas of mechanical, civil and aerospace engineering. To perform this kind of stochastic analysis there are two fundamental problems. That is, the mechanical description of the viscoelastic phenomenon, and the correct representation of the external loads. Both of these problems are addressed and solved by the proposed modeling that involves some advanced mathematical tools. The reason to describe materials as viscoelastic is given by…

Statistical correlation of fractional oscillator response by complex spectral moments and state variable expansion

Abstract The statistical characterization of the oscillator response with non-integer order damping under Gaussian noise represents an important challenge in the modern stochastic mechanics. In fact, this kind of problem appears in several issues of different type (wave propagation in viscoelastic media, Brownian motion, fluid dynamics, RLC circuit, etc.). The aim of this paper is to provide a stochastic characterization of the stationary response of linear fractional oscillator forced by normal white noise. In particular, this paper shows a new method to obtain the correlation function by exact complex spectral moments. These complex quantities contain all the information to describe the r…

A numerical assessment of the free energy function for fractional-order relaxation

In this paper a novel method based on complex eigenanalysis in the state variables domain is proposed to uncouple the set of rational order fractional differential equations governing the dynamics of multi-degree-of-freedom system. The traditional complex eigenanalysis is appropriately modified to be applicable to the coupled fractional differential equations. This is done by expanding the dimension of the problem and solving the system in the state variable domain. Examples of applications are given pertaining to multi-degree-of-freedom systems under both deterministic and stochastic loads.

Fractional differential equations and related exact mechanical models

Creep and relaxation tests, performed on various materials like polymers, rubbers and so on are well-fitted by power-laws with exponent β ∈ [0, 1] (Nutting (1921), Di Paola et al. (2011)). The consequence of this observation is that the stress-strain relation of hereditary materials is ruled by fractional operators (Scott Blair (1947), Slonimsky (1961)). A large amount of researches have been performed in the second part of the last century with the aim to connect constitutive fractional relations with some mechanical models by means of fractance trees and ladders (see Podlubny (1999)). Recently, Di Paola and Zingales (2012) proposed a mechanical model that corresponds to fractional stress-…

A discrete mechanical model of fractional hereditary materials

Fractional hereditary materials are characterized for the presence, in the stress-strain relations, of fractional-order operators with order beta a[0,1]. In Di Paola and Zingales (J. Rheol. 56(5):983-1004, 2012) exact mechanical models of such materials have been extensively discussed obtaining two intervals for beta: (i) Elasto-Viscous (EV) materials for 0a parts per thousand currency sign beta a parts per thousand currency sign1/2; (ii) Visco-Elastic (VE) materials for 1/2a parts per thousand currency sign beta a parts per thousand currency sign1. These two ranges correspond to different continuous mechanical models. In this paper a discretization scheme based upon the continuous models p…

On the influence of the initial ramp for a correct definition of the parameters of fractional viscoelastic materials

Creep and/or Relaxation tests on viscoelastic materials show a power-law trend. Based upon Boltzmann superposition principle the constitutive law with a power-law kernel is ruled by the Caputo's fractional derivative. Fractional constitutive law posses a long memory and then the parameters obtained by best fitting procedures on experimental data are strongly influenced by the prestress on the specimen. As in fact during the relaxation test the imposed history of deformation is not instantaneously applied, since a unit step function may not be realized by the test machine. Usually an initial ramp is present in the deformation history and the time at which the deformation attains the maximum …

Cross-correlation and cross-power spectral density representation by complex spectral moments

Abstract A new approach to provide a complete characterization of normal multivariate stochastic vector processes is presented in this paper. Such proposed method is based on the evaluation of the complex spectral moments of the processes. These quantities are strictly related to the Mellin transform and they are the generalization of the integer-order spectral moments introduced by Vanmarcke. The knowledge of the complex spectral moments permits to obtain the power spectral densities and their cross counterpart by a complex series expansions. Moreover, with just the aid of some mathematical properties the complex fractional moments permit to obtain also the correlation and cross-correlatio…

Stochastic response of fractional visco-elastic beams

Exact frequency response of bars with multiple dampers

The paper addresses the frequency analysis of bars with an arbitrary number of dampers, subjected to harmonically varying loads. Multiple external/internal dampers occurring at the same position along the bar, modelling external damping devices and internal damping due to damage or imperfect connections, are considered. In this context, the challenge is to handle simultaneous discontinuities of the response variables, i.e. axial force/displacement discontinuities at the location of external/internal dampers. Based on the theory of generalized functions, the paper will present exact closed-form expressions of the frequency response under point/polynomial loads, which hold regardless of the n…

CROSS-POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY AND CROSS-CORRELATION REPRESENTATION BY USING FRACTIONAL SPECTRAL MOMENTS

Fractional-order constitutive equations in mechanics and thermodynamics

This chapter is devoted to the application of fractional calculus in mechanics of materials and thermodynamics. The use of fractional calculus in mechanics is related to the definition of fractional-order constitutive equations leading to the class of fractional hereditariness. In this regard, a brief description of the classical rheological models of material hereditariness and a comparison with the fractional elements are reported. It is shown that a rheological hierarchy corresponding to the fractional order stress-strain relation may be defined. Such a model provides a multi-scale mechanical picture of the power-law hereditariness and it leads toward an unique definition of material fre…

Linear and nonlinear fractional hereditary constitutive laws of asphalt mixtures

The aim of this paper is to propose a fractional viscoelastic and viscoplastic model of asphalt mixtures using experimental data of several tests such as creep and creep recovery performed at different temperatures and at different stress levels. From a best fitting procedure it is shown that both the creep one and recovery curve follow a power law model. It is shown that the suitable model for asphalt mixtures is a dashpot and a fractional element arranged in series. The proposed model is also available outside of the linear domain but in this case the parameters of the model depend on the stress level.

On the Dynamics of Fractional Visco-Elastic Beams

With increasing advanced manufacturing process, visco-elastic materials are very attractive for mitigation of vibrations, provided that you may have advanced studies for capturing the realistic behavior of such materials. Experimental verification of the visco-elastic behavior is limited to some well-known low order models as the Maxwell or Kelvin models. However, both models are not sufficient to model the visco-elastic behavior of real materials, since only the Maxwell type can capture the relaxation tests and the Kelvin the creep tests, respectively. Very recently, it has been stressed that the most suitable model for capturing the visco-elastic behavior is the spring-pot, characterized …

Stochastic Response Of Fractionally Damped Beams

Abstract This paper aims at introducing the governing equation of motion of a continuous fractionally damped system under generic input loads, no matter the order of the fractional derivative. Moreover, particularizing the excitation as a random noise, the evaluation of the power spectral density performed in frequency domain highlights relevant features of such a system. Numerical results have been carried out considering a cantilever beam under stochastic loads. The influence of the fractional derivative order on the power spectral density response has been investigated, underscoring the damping effect in reducing the power spectral density amplitude for higher values of the fractional de…

Riesz fractional integrals and complex fractional moments for the probabilistic characterization of random variables

Abstract The aim of this paper is the probabilistic representation of the probability density function (PDF) or the characteristic function (CF) in terms of fractional moments of complex order. It is shown that such complex moments are related to Riesz and complementary Riesz integrals at the origin. By invoking the inverse Mellin transform theorem, the PDF or the CF is exactly evaluated in integral form in terms of complex fractional moments. Discretization leads to the conclusion that with few fractional moments the whole PDF or CF may be restored. Application to the pathological case of an α -stable random variable is discussed in detail, showing the impressive capability to characterize…