Fig. 5.

Stress development during the 30 min stress-relaxation test. (A) Stress drop relative to the starting stress of 100% (mean ± SE). The inset shows the first 60 s. Compared to the SR group the stress reduction in the SRC group is significantly greater at all time points from the 5th second onwards, and in the SR_Ch group from 300 s onwards (one-way ANOVA). (B) In order to assess differences in the stress-relaxation behaviour of the three test groups, the percentage difference in SR behaviour between the SRC and SC_Ch group, relative to the SR group, is plotted. The difference between SR and SRC is constant from 30s onwards, while the difference between SR and SR_Ch is established later and increases with time, as visualized by the different shape of the curve.