Transition from viscous to elastic response

[Paul]

We study a problem in which large temperature changes are sustained.
The material transitions from being a liquid to a solid. We use a
simple Maxwell model (strain-rate = elastic + viscous + thermal
expansion

For certain loading/temperature histories, we find that at a particular
temperature the material effectively transitions from acting like a
viscous liquid to an elastic solid.

We came up with one way of estimating this temperature - the estimate
depends on the derivative of the viscosity function withtemperature,
the elastic modulus, and the cooling rate. For the circumstances thus
far of interest to us, the estimate seems to be good. We have called
this the set-temperature.

My question is: Has this issue of been addressed in other contexts?
Is it well known to others (but just not to us)? I know the glass
industry thinks about this, but I have not come across a way of
estimating this transition temperature.

Thanks,

Paul