Memory functions as a tool for the description of tissue deformability

Abstract

The mechanical description of the behaviour of tissue started with the Hookean model, i.e. the tissue, in particular the vessel wall, was treated as linear elastic. Time dependent aspects have been included by an extension to the Kelvin-Voigt model and to the so-called 3-parameter model.

The aim of this paper is to apply the concept of hereditary integrals to tissue deformability. This integral formulation has as its experimental background creep and relaxation.