Premium
Relaxation Time Spectrum of Hydrogels by CONTIN Analysis
Author(s) -
Mao R.,
Tang J.,
Swanson B.G.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.2000.tb16010.x
Subject(s) - relaxation (psychology) , laplace transform , stress relaxation , gellan gum , inverse laplace transform , gelatin , mathematics , materials science , mathematical analysis , physics , chemistry , thermodynamics , biochemistry , social psychology , creep , food science , psychology
CONTIN is a general‐purpose program for inverting noisy linear algebraic and integral equations by means of inverse Laplace transform. This study explored the application of CONTIN analysis to determine the relaxation time distribution spectra for food gels, including gellan, carrageenan, whey protein, and gelatin gels, based on stress‐relaxation data. CONTIN results represent the continuous relaxation time spectra when the number of the terms in the discrete Maxwell stress‐relaxation model approached infinity. The CONTIN results for gellan gels were correlated to the texture properties of gels from compression tests with respect to the effects of calcium concentrations. CONTIN analysis may be a very effective tool in elucidating the microstructural properties of a hydrogel from mechanical testing.