Viscoelastic properties of heterogeneous materials: The case of periodic media containing cuboidal inclusions

This paper presents analytical solutions for the effective viscoelastic properties of composite materials based on a homogenization approach. The cases of spherical inclusions and cracks were recently developed. The objective of this paper is to use the same technique to deal with the case of periodic media containing cuboidal inhomogeneities. The viscoelastic behavior of both the matrix and the homogeneous equivalent medium is modeled by the Zener rheological model while inclusions are assumed to be linearly elastic. The viscoelastic Hill tensor required for the calculation of the effective viscoelastic tensors is obtained explicitly in the Laplace-Carson space in terms of Fourier series. The final expressions show that overall behavior depends on the viscoelastic properties of the matrix, the 3D dimensions of the inclusions and the thickness of the matrix layer between two nearby inclusions. Applications to masonry structures are presented to illustrate the theoretical results.