Hi Simon,

If you are using nano-indentation in the Linear Viscoelastic Region of strains, generally speaking, then any of the normal rheological models for viscoelastic responses could be applied, eg single Maxwell, Single Kelvin, Multiple Maxwell, etc. You may also be able to correlate the complex viscosity with a Cross or Carreau model.

If you conduct an amplitude sweep and start to break the structure of the material, then this would loosely equate to the yield stress of the cells or intercellular matrix (depending on the mode of failure).

People have correlated the length of the linear viscoelastic region to the Cohesive Energy of the sample, where CE = 0.5 x strain x (G')^2 where the G' point used is at the edge of the LVR.

Hope this gives a few useful pointers!

Hi,

without having any idea about the specifics of cell modeling, a robust framework for viscoelasticity under large deformations in general, is the one from this paper

Data On nonlinear viscoelastic deformations: A reappraisal of Fun...

I am also attaching some unpublished notes of mine with a simplified time integration.

Il faudrait s'intéresser aux modèles d'auto activation et au modèle fluidité