Thermal Creep in Thin-Walled Tubular Cylindrical Structures. A Mathematical Model.

There is discussed a mathematical model capable of describing and predicting the deformation field, in the linear viscoelastic domain, of a thin isotropic and homogeneous circular shell under multiaxial loading conditions and at high temperatures. The shell has been assumed to behave as a linear viscoelastic body and therefore the stress-strain relations are derived from the theory of viscoelasticity. J. N. Distefano's assumptions on the behavior of a linear viscoelastic solid under multiaxial loading conditions are used in this analysis. The proposed theory is based upon creep functions measurable over finite time ranges and leads to integral equations which can be easily solved using standard methods.