On nonlinear viscoelastic properties of arterial tissue.

Nonlinear viscoelasticity is important in a variety of studies in biomechanics. One of the subject areas is the necessity to characterize the dynamic properties of blood vessels. This study concerns a theoretical formulation to examine the higher order nonlinear viscoelastic relaxation functions for arterial tissue based on the assumption of transversely isotropic material properties. Simple numerical results for the first-order theory are compared with those available in the literature.