Affiliations: Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Note: [*] Reprint requests to: Lynne E. Bilston, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Building J07, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, AUSTRALIA; Fax: +61-2-9351-7060; E-mail: bilston@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
Abstract: We report the results from a series of rheological tests of fresh bovine brain tissue. Using a standard Bohlin VOR shear rheometer, shear relaxation and oscillating strain sweep experiments were performed on disks of brain tissue 30 mm in diameter, with a thickness of 1.5–2 mm. The strain sweep experiment showed that the viscoelastic strain limit is of the order of 0.1% strain. Shear relaxation data do not indicate the presence of a long-term elastic modulus, indicating fluid-like behavior. A relaxation spectrum was calculated by inverting the experimental data and used to predict oscillatory response, which agreed well with measured data.
