In this paper, we study the problem of global existence of solutions to the following initial-boundary value problem
utt-auxxt-p(ux)-∫t0λ(t-s)q(ux)xds = f(x,t),0<x<1,t>0
u|x=0 = 0,u|x=1 = 0,t≥0,
u|t=0 =φ(x),ut|t=0 =ψ(x), 0≤x≤1,
which comes from viscoelastic mechanics. By making use of Galerkin's approximation method, we prove that this problem has a unique global solution if, in addition to certain regularity assumptions on the given functions, the following conditions are satisfied
p′(s)≥0, |p′(s)-q′(s)|≤const., λ(0)<0, λ′(0)<λ2(0).