Definition Box

Viscoelastic properties

Viscoelastic properties = having some of the characteristics of both a liquid (flowing like a liquid with the consistency of syrup or honey) and a solid (resisting and recovering from stretching, compression or distortion). Elasticity is usually the result of bond stretching along crystallographic planes in an ordered solid; viscoelasticity is the result of the diffusion of atoms or molecules inside an amorphous material.