Spectral method for time-strain separable integral constitutive models in oscillatory shear

TLDR: In this article, a spectrally accurate method is proposed to estimate the oscillatory portion of the integrand using a discrete Fourier series, which enables analytical evaluation of the resulting integrals for the Maxwell model.

Abstract: The time-strain separable Kaye–Bernstein–Kearsley–Zappas model (tssKBKZM) is a popular integral constitutive equation that is used to model the nonlinear response of time-strain separable materials using only their linear viscoelastic properties and damping function. In oscillatory shear, numerical evaluation of tssKBKZM is complicated by the infinite domain of integration, and the oscillatory nature of the integrand. To avoid these problems, a spectrally accurate method is proposed. It approximates the oscillatory portion of the integrand using a discrete Fourier series, which enables analytical evaluation of the resulting integrals for the Maxwell model. The spectral method is generalized for arbitrary discrete and continuous relaxation spectra. Upper bounds for quadrature error, which can often be driven to machine precision, are presented. The Doi–Edwards model with independent-alignment approximation (DE-IA) is a special case of tssKBKZM; for DE-IA, the spectral method is compared with trapezoidal rule to highlight its accuracy and efficiency. The superiority of the proposed method is particularly evident at large strain amplitude and frequency. For continuous relaxation spectra, the spectral method transforms the double integral corresponding to the tssKBKZM to a single integral. Solutions computed to a specified level of accuracy using standard numerical libraries show that the spectral method is typically two to three orders of magnitude faster. Extensions to fractional rheological models, materials with nonzero equilibrium modulus, stretched exponential models, etc., are also discussed.