Characteristic Recovery Time of an Erythrocyte From an Extensional Deformation

An analytical expression for the characteristic recovery time of an erythrocyte subject to an extensional deformation is derived using a previous nonlinear Kelvin-Voigt model. The recovery time thus obtained depends on the initial deformation in agreement with experimental observations, as a result of the nonlinearity of the model. The validity of the analytical results is confirmed using previous experimental data.