Fung's Quasi-linear Viscoelastic Model Research Articles

Energy dissipation in quasi-linear viscoelastic tissues, cells, and extracellular matrix.

Characterizing how a tissue's constituents give rise to its viscoelasticity is important for uncovering how hidden timescales underlie multiscale biomechanics. These constituents are viscoelastic in nature, and their mechanics must typically be assessed from the uniaxial behavior of a tissue. Confounding the challenge is that tissue viscoelasticity is typically associated with nonlinear elastic responses. Here, we experimentally assessed how fibroblasts and extracellular matrix (ECM) within engineered tissue constructs give rise to the nonlinear viscoelastic responses of a tissue. We applied a constant strain rate, "triangular-wave" loading and interpreted responses using the Fung quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) material model. Although the Fung QLV model has several well-known weaknesses, it was well suited to the behaviors of the tissue constructs, cells, and ECM tested. Cells showed relatively high damping over certain loading frequency ranges. Analysis revealed that, even in cases where the Fung QLV model provided an excellent fit to data, the the time constant derived from the model was not in general a material parameter. Results have implications for design of protocols for the mechanical characterization of biological materials, and for the mechanobiology of cells within viscoelastic tissues.

A discrete spectral analysis for determining quasi-linear viscoelastic properties of biological materials.

The viscoelastic behaviour of a biological material is central to its functioning and is an indicator of its health. The Fung quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) model, a standard tool for characterizing biological materials, provides excellent fits to most stress-relaxation data by imposing a simple form upon a material's temporal relaxation spectrum. However, model identification is challenging because the Fung QLV model's 'box'-shaped relaxation spectrum, predominant in biomechanics applications, can provide an excellent fit even when it is not a reasonable representation of a material's relaxation spectrum. Here, we present a robust and simple discrete approach for identifying a material's temporal relaxation spectrum from stress-relaxation data in an unbiased way. Our 'discrete QLV' (DQLV) approach identifies ranges of time constants over which the Fung QLV model's typical box spectrum provides an accurate representation of a particular material's temporal relaxation spectrum, and is effective at providing a fit to this model. The DQLV spectrum also reveals when other forms or discrete time constants are more suitable than a box spectrum. After validating the approach against idealized and noisy data, we applied the methods to analyse medial collateral ligament stress-relaxation data and identify the strengths and weaknesses of an optimal Fung QLV fit.

On application of Fung's quasi-linear viscoelastic model to modeling of impact experiment for articular cartilage

A one-dimensional impact problem for articular cartilage is considered. Behavior of the coefficient of restitution, peak strain, maximum stress in the drop-weight impact experiment is studied in detail. The non-linear viscoelastic Hunt–Crossley model previously used to fit experimental data is compared with a new quasi-linear viscoelastic Kelvin–Voigt model enriched in Fung's non-linear assumptions. It has been shown that the new model, having clear physical sense, better describes the experimental data.

On nonlinear viscoelastic deformations: a reappraisal of Fung's quasi-linear viscoelastic model.

This paper offers a reappraisal of Fung's model for quasi-linear viscoelasticity. It is shown that a number of negative features exhibited in other works, commonly attributed to the Fung approach, are merely a consequence of the way it has been applied. The approach outlined herein is shown to yield improved behaviour and offers a straightforward scheme for solving a wide range of models. Results from the new model are contrasted with those in the literature for the case of uniaxial elongation of a bar: for an imposed stretch of an incompressible bar and for an imposed load. In the latter case, a numerical solution to a Volterra integral equation is required to obtain the results. This is achieved by a high-order discretization scheme. Finally, the stretch of a compressible viscoelastic bar is determined for two distinct materials: Horgan–Murphy and Gent.