Abstract

Living things use recoiling viscoelastic materials to drive fast, powerful movements. However, previous studies of these materials have mostly assumed that they behave linearly, where in reality this is not the case. Nonlinear viscoelastic models exist, but it can be challenging to measure the new material properties they predict. Here I present a data analysis algorithm to process the results of an oscillatory strain experiment and extract these nonlinear materials properties. I also explore the effects of these properties and interpret their physical meaning.