Fractional calculus - A different approach to the analysis of viscoelastically damped structures

Fractional calculus is used to construct stress-strain relationships for viscoelastic materials. These relationships are used in the finite element analysis of viscoelastically damped structures and closed-form solutions to the equations of motion are found. The attractive feature of this approach is that very few empirical parameters are required to model the viscoelastic material and calculate the response of the structure for general loading conditions.