A reduced-order finite element formulation for the geometrically nonlinear dynamic analysis of viscoelastic structures based on the fractional-order derivative constitutive relation

In this paper, a formulation of reduced-order finite element (FE) model is presented for geometrically nonlinear dynamic analysis of viscoelastic structures based on the fractional-order derivative constitutive relation and harmonic balance method. The main focus is to formulate the nonlinear reduced-order models (ROMs) in the time and frequency domain without involving the corresponding full-order FE models, and it is carried out by means of a special factorization of the nonlinear strain–displacement matrix. Furthermore, a methodology for the enrichment of reduction basis (RB) over that obtained from conventional approaches is presented where the proper orthogonal decomposition method is utilized by comprising the correlation matrix as the union of stiffness-normalized reduction basis vectors and the corresponding static derivatives. The results reveal a significantly reduced computational time due to the formulation of the nonlinear ROMs without involving the full-order FE model. A good accuracy of the nonlinear ROMs of viscoelastic structures is also achieved through the present method of enrichment of RB.