Exact and Variational Solutions to a General Viscoelasto-Kinetic Problem

Exact and variational methods of analysis are proposed which reduce a general elastic wave-propagation problem to a static problem plus an eigenvalue problem. The methods are shown to be immediately applicable to linear viscoelastic materials with constant Poisson’s ratio. The viscoelastic wave problem is thus reduced to an elastic wave problem plus an integral equation of the Volterra type involving time only.