Rheology – Theory and Application to Biomaterials

Rheology is science which treats the deformation and flow of materials. The science of rheology is applied to the physics, chemistry, engineering, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, biology and so on. Classical theory of elasticity treats the elastic solid which is accordant to Hooke’s law [1]. The stress is directly proportional to strain in deformations and is not dependent of the rate of strain. On the other hand, that of hydrodynamics treats the viscous liquid which is accordant to Newton’s law [1]. The stress is directly proportional to rate of strain and is not dependent of the strain. However, most of materials have both of elasticity and viscosity, that is, viscoelastic properties. Mainly viscoelastic properties of the polymers are analyzed in rheology. Rheology would have two purposes scientifically. One is to determine relationship among deformation, stress and time, and the other is to determine structure of molecule and relationship between viscoelastic properties and structure of the materials.