Comparison of the Completion Times between Stress Relaxation and Creep: A Proof Using the Standard Linear Solid Model
Journal
Mechanics of Solids
Journal Volume
61
Journal Issue
1
Start Page
54
ISSN
00256544
Date Issued
2026-02
Author(s)
Lin, Yu-Chen
Abstract
Abstract: Stress relaxation and creep are typical viscoelastic behaviors commonly used as two of the standard methods for quantitatively measuring the viscoelastic properties of viscoelastic solids. Since a stress relaxation or creep test could be pretty time-consuming to complete, the time required to complete a test could be an important consideration for a tester to decide which kind of test is preferable. Is this article, we employed the standard linear solid model to prove that, if the stress relaxation and creep processes being compared are initiated under equivalent loading conditions (i.e., both processes share equivalent initial stress and strain), it can be ensured that the completion time of the stress relaxation process must be shorter than that of the creep process for any viscoelastic solid; in other words, the time required for the stress to reach the equilibrium state in the stress relaxation process must be shorter than the time required for the strain to reach the equilibrium state in the creep process. This fact suggests that a stress relaxation test must be faster than a creep test with the equivalent loading condition to complete for any viscoelastic solid, and therefore it could be beneficial to save significant measurement time by employing the stress relaxation test to measure the viscoelastic properties of a viscoelastic solid. In addition to be useful for applications in material characterization, this interesting fact also helps to improve the understanding of the mechanics and physics of viscoelastic materials. The standard linear solid model is a widely-used and robust model that can realistically describe the viscoelastic behaviors of viscoelastic solids in a qualitative manner, and therefore it is believed that the fact proved based on the standard linear solid model in this article could be general. In the future, it remains necessary to employ a generalized viscoelastic model to verify the generality of the finding.
Subjects
mechanical properties
mechanics of materials
rheology
solid mechanics
viscoelastic properties
viscoelasticity
Publisher
Pleiades Publishing
Type
journal article