Power law rheology by distributed yielding times of spring-like elements

A system of parallel springs can respond to an applied stress ramp with a fractional power-law creep $\Delta x(t)\propto t^{\beta}$, when individual springs yield with a suitable distribution $p(\tau)$ of life times and when immediately after a yield event the spring is replaced in a strain-free configuration. Such a system is equivalent to parallel Maxwell elements with distributed visco-elastic relaxation times.

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