Characterization of Thermomechanical Behaviour of Skin Tissue II. Viscoelastic Behaviour

paper presents the viscoelastic behaviour of skin tissue under different thermal loadings and discusses the effect of temperature and corresponding dermal collagen denaturation on the mechanical viscoelastic properties of skin tissue. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) has been used to detect dermal collagen denaturation and to assess its thermal stability. The DSC results under various heating rates are used to derive the Arrhenius parameters (a E , A) in the burn damage integration, which are then used to calculate the degree of denatured collagen in the skin. Temperature tests have been performed using a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) to evaluate changes in the skin viscoelastic properties as a function of collagen damage, specifically, to assess the changes in the storage modulus (' E), and loss factor (tan δ). The results show remarkable changes in ' E , which is maybe due to the release of water, but there is no significant effect from tan δ. These results suggest that at a constant frequency the denaturation of collagen molecules has little effect on the viscoelasticity.