Stress relaxation of porcine tendon under simulated biological environment: experiment and modeling

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to investigate the viscoelastic response in the low and high physiological strain with the use of experimental and modeling approach. METHODS: Viscoelastic response in the low, transition and high physiologic strain (3, 6 and 9%) with consideration of simulated biological environment (0.9% saline solution, 37 °C) was measured in relaxation tests. Preconditioning of tendons was considered in the testing protocol and the applied range of load was obtained from tensile testing. The quasi-linear viscoelasticity theory was used to fit experimental data to obtain constants (moduli and times of relaxation), which can be used for description of the viscoelastic behavior of tendons. The exponential non-linear elastic representation of the stress response in ramp strain was also estimated. RESULTS: Differences between stress relaxation process can be seen between tendons stretched to the physiological strain range (3%) and exceeding this range (6 and 9%). The strains of 6% and 9% showed a similar stress relaxation trend displaying relatively rapid relaxation for the first 70 seconds, whereas the lowest strain of 3% displayed relatively slow relaxation. CONCLUSIONS: Results of the model fitting showed that the quasi-linear viscoelastic model gives the best fit in the range of low physiological strain level.