Bending response of a fiber-reinforced viscoelastic arched bridge model

The small parameter approach and the method of effective moduli are presented for the bending response of a fiber-reinforced viscoelastic arched bridge model. The present model is considered as a beam with boundary conditions at its edges, which may be clamped, and between these two edges the beam may have quadratic thickness variation. Closed form solutions have been developed for the quasi-static response of fiber-reinforced viscoelastic arched bridges subjected to uniform loading. The effects due to time, thickness parameter, constitutive parameter, and volume fraction parameter on the deflections are investigated. The sample numerical examples presented herein for bending response of reinforced viscoelastic clamped beams with quadratic thickness variation should serve as references for future comparisons. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.