A physically motivated constitutive model for 3D numerical simulation of skeletal muscles

J. Weickenmeier, M. Itskov, E. Mazza, M. Jabareen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

A detailed numerical implementation within the FEM is presented for a physically motivated three-dimensional constitutive model describing the passive and active mechanical behaviors of the skeletal muscle. The derivations for the Cauchy stress tensor and the consistent material tangent are provided. For nearly incompressible skeletal muscle tissue, the strain energy function may be represented either by a coupling or a decoupling of the distortional and volumetric material response. In the present paper, both functionally different formulations are introduced allowing for a direct comparison between the coupled and decoupled isochoric-volumetric approach. The numerical validation of both implementations revealed significant limitations for the decoupled approach. For an extensive characterization of the model response to different muscle contraction modes, a benchmark model is introduced. Finally, the proposed implementation is shown to provide a reliable tool for the analysis of complex and highly nonlinear problems through the example of the human mastication system by studying bite force and three-dimensional muscle shape changes during mastication.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)545-562
Number of pages18
JournalInternational Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering
Volume30
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2014

Keywords

  • Mastication system
  • Muscle activation
  • Numerical implementation
  • Skeletal muscle
  • Soft biological tissue
  • Tangent modulus

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