Relaxation and creep quasilinear viscoelastic models for normal articular cartilage.

A quasilinear viscoelastic model was used to develop relaxation and creep forms for a constitutive law for soft tissues. Combined relaxation and cyclic test data as well as preconditioned and nonpreconditioned creep data were used to demonstrate the approach for normal bovine articular cartilage. Values for mechanical parameters in the analytical models were determined using a generalized least squares method.