ABSTRACT
Viscoelasticity can enter in the application of materials in many ways. In some applications one must deal with natural materials such as stone, earth, or wood in the case of building construction; or bone and soft tissue in the case of biomedical engineering. A foam earplug was designed to be easily fitted into the ear by making use of controlled viscoelastic behavior of the polymer from which it is made. Concrete used in structural applications can exhibit significant creep. Creep-resistant alloys are used in high-temperature applications including heat exchangers, furnace linings, boiler baffles, bolts at high temperature, power plants, exhaust systems, and components for gas turbines. A computer disk drive was introduced some time ago, and after about six months of use, the drives experienced tracking errors and were returned to the factory. Skin is viscoelastic; therefore, it has a delayed recovery in response to transient deformation.
