Relaxation time spectrum of hydrogels by CONTIN analysis

CONTIN is a general-purpose program for inverting noisy linear algebraic an d integral equations by means of inverse Laplace transform. This study expl ored the application of CONTIN analysis to determine the relaxation time di stribution spectra for food gels, including gellan, carrageenan, whey prote in, and gelatin gels, based on stress-relaxation data. CONTIN results repre sent the continuous relaxation time spectra when the number of the terms in the discrete Maxwell stress-relaxation model approached infinity. The CONT IN results for gellan gels were correlated to the texture properties of gel s from compression tests with respect to the effects of calcium concentrati ons. CONTIN analysis may be a very effective tool in elucidating the micros tructural properties of a hydrogel from mechanical testing.