Abstract
A glass-like (viscoelastic) functionally graded cylinder is studied by using finite element method to investigate the mechanical responses. A subroutine is developed by using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) to simulate two nonlinearities, which are the variation of material properties with respect to time and position. The cylinder is made of two different viscoelastic materials, namely, pure material one at inner and pure material two at outer surfaces. The material properties are assumed to be presented by simple power law distribution and moreover, bulk and shear moduli are varying with respect to time using the kernel functions depicted regarding Prony series. It is shown that the hoop stresses take the same values at the mean radius (middle of the thickness) for different values of time and grading index. It is found that the radial stress decreases to certain values for specific grading index and then by increasing the grading index it increases to maximum value that related to pure material cylinder. It is shown that unlike the zero axial stress in pure material cylinders, it varies along the thickness from minimum to maximum at inner and outer surfaces, respectively. It is concluded that the viscoelastic functionally graded (VFG) materials play an important role in steady and transient response of hollow cylinder under hydrostatic load. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.