Finite element analyses of layered visco‐elastic system under vertical circular loading

Abstract Analyses for the response of a linear visco‐elastic system subjected to axi‐symmetric vertical circular loading are presented. Hankel transforms with respect to the radial spatial coordinate are used to reduce the three‐dimensional problem to that involving only a single spatial dimension, which is then discretized using the finite element method. Three techniques are employed to handle the time factor in the visco‐elastic material: (i) direct time integration; (ii) Fourier transforms; and (iii) Laplace transforms. These methods are compared and evaluated through their numerical results. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.