Structural identifiability of viscoelastic mechanical systems

TL;DR

This paper addresses the challenge of determining whether viscoelastic mechanical models, represented by spring-dashpot networks, can be uniquely identified from data, providing a simple characterization method for complex models.

Contribution

It introduces a straightforward approach using identifiability tables to assess and construct identifiable spring-dashpot networks, advancing model design and analysis.

Findings

Provided a simple characterization method for identifiability

Demonstrated applications in cardiovascular modeling

Guided construction of complex identifiable networks

Abstract

We solve the local and global structural identifiability problems for viscoelastic mechanical models represented by networks of springs and dashpots. We propose a very simple characterization of both local and global structural identifiability based on identifiability tables, with the purpose of providing a guideline for constructing arbitrarily complex, identifiable spring-dashpot networks. We illustrate how to use our results in a number of examples and point to some applications in cardiovascular modeling.