Creep and relaxation functions of a heterogeneous viscoelastic porous medium using the Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme and a discrete microscopic retardation spectrum

In this paper the macroscopic creep and relaxation functions of a heterogeneous viscoelastic porous medium are derived by using Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme. Analytical and semi-analytical solutions can then be determined with a parametric number of heterogeneous phases embedded in a viscoelastic matrix whose behavior is described with a parametric number of analogical units. Under some simplifying assumptions, a solution strategy is presented in order to make explicit how the microscopic retardation and relaxation times of the viscoelastic matrix control the distribution of the retardation and relaxation times of the homogenized medium.