Author:

Keywords:

Biomedical Engineering, 0903 Biomedical Engineering, 1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences, 0913 Mechanical Engineering

Abstract:

In this study an attempt is made to combine some structural parameters of a pinnate muscle into a mechanical model. Therefore, twenty-one male subjects, aged between 19 and 28 years, exerted a static plantar flexion in 5 angles at the ankle: 60, 70, 90, 110 and 120 degrees. A simultaneous videoregistration is made of the moment in the ankle and the structure of m.gastrocnemius (caput mediale), visualized by means of ultrasound. From the latter some structural parameters are determined: the angle of insertion of the muscle fibres on the tendon plate, the section of the muscle belly and the fibre length. To predict the moment at the ankle from these structural parameters and to give a mechanical representation of the behaviour of the parameters during a static contraction, a model is constructed. The correlations between the exerted moment and the one predicted from the model in the different angles at the ankle are: .94, .93, .90, .86 and .85.