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This book examines the mechanics and thermodynamics of materials with memory, including properties of the dynamical equations which describe their evolution in time under varying loads. The book details a new approach, based on the use of minimal states.

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This is a work in four parts, dealing with the mechanics and thermodynamics of materials with memory, including properties of the dynamical equations which describe their evolution in time under varying loads.
The first part is an introduction to Continuum Mechanics with sections dealing with classical Fluid Mechanics and Elasticity, linear and non-linear.
The second part is devoted to Continuum Thermodynamics, which is used to derive constitutive equations of materials with memory, including viscoelastic solids, fluids, heat conductors and some examples of non-simple materials.
In part three, free energies for materials with linear memory constitutive relations are comprehensively explored. The new concept of a minimal state is also introduced. Formulae derived over the last decade for the minimum and related free energies are discussed in depth. Also, a new single integral free energy which is a functional of the minimal state is analyzed in detail. Finally, free energies for examples of non-simple materials are considered.
In the final part, existence, uniqueness and stability results are presented for the integrodifferential equations describing the dynamical evolution of viscoelastic materials. A new approach to these topics, based on the use of minimal states rather than histories, is discussed in detail. There are also chapters on the controllability of thermoelastic systems with memory, the Saint-Venant problem for viscoelastic materials and on the theory of inverse problems.

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Introduction to Continuum.-Materials with Constitutive Equations That Are Local in Time.- Principles of Thermodynamics.- Free Energies and the Dissipation Principle.-Thermodynamics of Materials with Memory.-A Linear Memory Model.- Viscoelastic Solids and Fluids.- Heat Conductors.- Free Energies on Special Classes of Material.- The Minimum Free Energy.-Representation of the Minimum Free Energy in the Time Domain.- Minimum Free Energy for Viscoelastic Solids, Fluids, and Heat Conductors.- The Minimum Free Energy for a Continuous-Spectrum Material.- The Minimum Free Energy for a Finite-Memory Material.- A Family of Free Energies.- Properties and Explicit Forms of Free Energies for the Case of Isolated Singularities.- Free Energies for Nonlocal Materials.- Existence and Uniqueness.- Controllability of Thermoelastic Systems with Memory.- The Saint-Venant Problem for Viscoelastic Materials.- Exponential Decay.- Semigroup Theory for Abstract Equations with Memory.- Identification Problems for Integrodifferential Equations.- Dynamics of Viscoelastic Fluids.- A Conventions and Some Properties of Vector Spaces.- References.- Index.

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