Effects of volumetric boundary conditions on the compressive mechanics and modeling of passive skeletal muscle
For over two decades, computational models of human body—such as the Toyota THUMS model— have been used in automobilesafety. These models rely on accurate material properties for eachtissue. However, the compressive behavior of skeletal muscle is notfully understood, particularly regarding the differences in muscleresponse to in vivo loading conditions. It is likely that in vivo muscleexperiences a variation between confined and unconfined volumetricboundary conditions, but nearly all previous studies investigatingpassively compressed tissue have focused on muscle in unconfinedcompression (UC). One study has investigated muscle underanisotropic semi-confined compression, however none have studiedmuscle in fully confined compression (CC). Thus, we have investigatedthe effects of volumetric boundary conditions (UC and CC) on the stressrelaxation of skeletal muscle. Moreover, a finite element modelsimultaneously characterizing muscle behavior in both boundaryconditions is explored.