Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Subject-specific Musculoskeletal Model for Studying Bone Strain During Dynamic Motion
Published on: April 11, 2018
Passive nonlinear elastic behaviour of skeletal muscle: experimental results and model formulation
1Group of Structural Mechanics and Materials Modelling, Aragón Institute of Engineering Research, University of Zaragoza, Spain. bcalvo@unizar.es
Abstract:
The goal of this study was to characterize the passive elastic behaviour of muscle and tendon tissues of rat tibialis anterior. For that purpose, tissue samples from 3 month old female Wistar rats (210+/-11g) were mechanically tested in vitro. Moreover, an in vivo device was developed to measure the muscle-tendon unit response to increasing load. Mechanical tests, consisting of uniaxial loading along the longitudinal axis of tendon and muscle strips, revealed the nonlinear mechanical behaviour of these tissues. A material model was formulated and its parameters fit to the experimental data using the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm. The fit goodness was assessed and R(2) values close to 1 and very low epsilon values were obtained. The passive behaviour of a future finite element model of a muscle-tendon unit will be validated against the in vivo passive extension tests by comparing the reaction force-extension curves.
Related Concept Videos
Relaxation of Skeletal Muscles
When an action potential reaches the axon terminal, it depolarizes the membrane and opens voltage-gated sodium channels. Sodium ions enter the cell, further depolarizing the presynaptic membrane. This depolarization causes voltage-gated calcium channels to open.
Design Example: Frog Muscle Response
When the switch connecting the RL circuit is closed, a brief muscle contraction is observed. This is because, at a steady state, the inductor acts like a short circuit,...
Excitation-Contraction Coupling in Skeletal Muscles
When an action potential...
Linear Approximation in Time Domain
For a simple pendulum with a mass evenly distributed along its length and the center of mass located at half the pendulum's length, the...
Generation of Action Potential in Skeletal Muscles
Like neurons, muscle cells are also regarded as excitable due to their capacity to change in response to stimuli, primarily due to voltage-gated ion channels embedded in their plasma membranes, which get activated by alterations in the cell's...
Hooke's Law

