Using regularization methods for the determination of relaxation and retardation spectra of polymeric liquids

The application of Tikhonov regularization to the determination of relaxation and retardation spectra of viscoelastic fluids is discussed using simulated and real experimental data. It is thereby shown that with this method consistent results for relaxation and retardation spectra can be obtained from experimental data for different material functions. Furthermore, the differences between the most frequently used variants of Tikhonov regularization and the maximum entropy method are discussed. For most calculations the program FTIKREG has been used, which is an especially fast and reliable implementation of Tikhonov's regularization method.