2 - Methodological aspects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2012
Summary
A brief description of some computational mechanics methods that are used throughout the rest of the book.
Introduction
While this book does not aim at teaching computational biomechanics, in this chapter I shall review a few concepts of mechanics and computational mechanics that will provide a methodological foundation for the following chapters, where instead I shall focus on the biomedical application.
Elements of dynamics of rigid articulated systems
To investigate human motion we can assume that the skeleton is made of rigid elements (bones) connected by joints to form an articulated system. By considering the forces generated by the muscles we can then predict the kinematics of the skeleton (forward dynamics), while by considering the kinematics we can compute the joint moments, and from those derive the muscle forces (inverse dynamics). This section aims to provide some theoretical basis for the dynamics of articulated systems.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Multiscale Modeling of the Skeletal System , pp. 20 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011