  The Yano-Koonin-Podgoretskii (YKP) parametrisation of Hanbury Brown-Twiss
(HBT) two-particle correlation functions opens new strategies for extracting
the emission duration and testing the longitudinal expansion in heavy-ion
collisions. Based on the recently derived model-independent expressions, we
present a detailed parameter study of the YKP parameters for a finite,
hydrodynamically expanding source model of heavy-ion collisions. For the class
of models studied here, we show that the three YKP radius parameters have an
interpretation as longitudinal extension, transverse extension and emission
duration of the source in the YKP frame. This frame is specified by the fourth
fit parameter, the Yano-Koonin velocity which describes to a good approximation
the velocity of the fluid element with highest emissivity and allows to test
for the longitudinal expansion of the source. Deviations from this
interpretation of the YKP parameters are discussed quantitatively.
