Mean-Square Response of Thermoviscoelastic Medium to Nonstationary Random Excitation

The mean-square wave response of a lightly damped thermoviscoelastic medium to a special type of nonstationary random excitation is determined. The excitation function on the thermoviscoelastic medium is taken in the form of a product of a well-defined, slowly varying envelope function, and a part which prescribes the statistical characteristics of the excitation. Both the unit step and rectangular step functions are used for the envelope function, and both white noise and noise with an exponentially decaying harmonic correlation function are used to prescribe the statistical property of the excitation. By taking into consideration the slow variation envelope function and the wave characteristics of the lightly damped thermoviscoelastic medium, the mean-square response (as a function of temperature, excitation, and damping parameters with the aid of reversible and irreversible thermodynamics) is evaluated.