The strain gradient viscoelasticity full field solutions for Mode-I and Mode-II crack problems

•The strain gradient viscoelastic solutions of the Mode-I and Mode-II crack in an infinite quasi-brittle advanced material are proposed based on the strain gradient viscoelasticity theory using the Wiener-Hopf method and the correspondence principle in Maxwell's standard linear solid model. The strain gradient viscoelasticity theory are successfully used to explain the fracture of microscale and nanoscale materials with viscosity and size effect.•The stress near the crack tip is time-dependent and size-dependent. The stress near the crack tip is more significant than that based on gradient elasticity theory. Compared with the elastic strain gradient effect, the viscous gradient effect makes the stress field at the crack tip harden.•The location and the value of maximum stress change with time, which differs from the case in strain gradient elasticity theory. The time that the normalized stress takes to stabilize also changes with the distance from the crack tip. When the viscosity effect is neglected or time tends to infinity, the strain gradient viscoelasticity theory can be reduced to the classical strain gradient elasticity theory. The impacts of size and viscosity become distinctly evident when considering micro- and nano-scale phenomena for advanced materials with micro- and nanostructures. In this study, the mechanical behavior of the advanced material is characterized by using the strain gradient viscoelasticity theory, and a novel solution is presented for the mode-I and mode-II cracks, which is formulated based on the strain gradient viscoelasticity theory, employing the Wiener-Hopf method. Besides, the gradient-dependent viscoelastic crack solutions are directly derived by applying the correspondence principle that aligns strain gradient viscoelasticity with strain gradient elasticity within the Maxwell's standard linear solid model. Relative to the influence of elastic strain gradient effects, the involvement of viscous gradient effects instigates a reinforcement to the stress field around the crack tip, thereby offering a more reasonable representation of advanced materials crack behavior. When the viscosity effect is omitted or as time tends to infinity, the solutions based on strain gradient viscoelasticity theory converges to those on the classical strain gradient elasticity theory.