Abstract

Recently fractional calculus (FC) has encountered much success in the description of complex dynamics. In particular FC has proved to be a valuable tool to handle viscoelastic aspects. In this paper we construct fractional rheological constitutive equations on the basis of well known mechanical models, especially the Maxwell, the Kelvin-Voigt, the Zener and the Poynting-Thomson model. To this end we introduce a fractional element, in addition to the standard purely elastic and purely viscous elements. As we proceed to show, many of the fractional differential equations which we obtain by this construction method admit closed form, analytical solutions in terms of Fox H-functions of the Minag-Leffler type.