American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 3(121), p. 330-339, 1999
DOI: 10.1115/1.2798329
Full text: Unavailable
A manual indentation protocol was established to assess the quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) properties of lower limb soft tissues. The QLV parameters were extracted using a curve-fitting procedure on the experimental indentation data. The load-indentation responses were obtained using an ultrasound indentation apparatus with a hand-held pen-sized probe. Limb soft tissues at four sites of eight normal young subjects were tested in three body postures. Four QLV model parameters were extracted from the experimental data. The initial modulus E0 ranged from 0.22 kPa to 58.4 kPa. The nonlinear factor E1 ranged from 21.7 kPa to 547 kPa. The time constant τ ranged from 0.05 s to 8.93 s. The time-dependent material parameter α ranged from 0.029 to 0.277. Large variations of the parameters were noted among subjects, sites, and postures.