Sequential Straightening and Loading Viscoelasticity

Abstract eng:
Collagenous soft tissues exhibit complex viscoelastic behaviour, such as strain-rate dependence, hysteresis and strain-dependent relaxation. Many existing theories, such as quasi-linear viscoelasticity, fail to capture some of these features. In this paper, a model for soft tissue viscoelasticity that is based on the notion of “sequential straightening and loading”, whereby fibrils contribute to tissue stiffness only when taut, is presented. Each fibril is modelled as linear viscoelastic and has an associated critical strain at which it becomes taut. We show that, even given such simple constitutive behaviour, all of the desired viscoelastic features occur as a consequence of there being a distribution of such critical strains. The model is used to fit mechanical tests on three different rat tail tendon fascicles and we show that they can be reproduced with a single set of constitutive parameters, with the only difference being the distribution of the critical strains in each case.

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