Large deformations of nonlinear viscoelastic and multi-responsive beams

• We analyze large deformations and rotations of nonlinear viscoelastic beams.
• We simulate time-dependent folding of beams due to thermal and electrical stimuli.
• The effects of time-dependent and nonlinear material responses are significant.
• We discuss analytical and numerical solutions for the studied nonlinear problems.

This study presents analyses of deformations in nonlinear viscoelastic beams that experience large displacements and rotations due to mechanical, thermal, and electrical stimuli. The studied beams are relatively thin so that the effect of the transverse shear deformation is neglected, and the stretch along the transverse axis of the beams is also ignored. It is assumed that the plane that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the undeformed beam remains plane during the deformations. The nonlinear kinematics of the finite strain beam theory presented by Reissner [27] is adopted, and a nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive relation based on a quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) model is considered for the beams. Deformation in beams due to mechanical, thermal, and electric field inputs are incorporated through the use of time integral functions, by separating the time-dependent function and nonlinear measures of field variables. The nonlinear measures are formulated by including higher order terms of the field variables, i.e. strain, temperature, and electric field. Responses of beams under mechanical, thermal, and electrical stimuli are illustrated and the effects of nonlinear constitutive relations on the overall deformations of the beams are highlighted.