Abstract
We present a thermomechanical framework to describe the transition from a viscoelastic fluid to a viscoelastic solid, in which the kinetics associated with the transition and the change of response ch acteristics prior to, during, and after the transition are modeled within a unified setting. The procedures fit within the general thermodynamic framework that has been developed to describe the response of materials that can exist stress free in multiple configurations. The current study is a generalization of the studies by Rao and Rajagopal and Kannan et al. that addresses the solidification of a polymeric melt into an elastic solid.