Coronary arterial smooth muscle is myogenically active, is acted upon by a variety of modulating agents, and is subjected, in situ, to compression and distension by the myocardium. Its mechanical properties thus play a key role in the regulation of coronary blood flow. To describe these, we applied phase-plane analysis of shortening velocity vs. length and load clamping to strips of isolated co...

This paper deals with the behavior of anti-plane shear crack in a piezoelectric layer bounded between two orthotropic half-planes within the framework of linear electroelasticity. The crack surfaces are assumed to be permeable or impermeable. The analysis is based on the stress fields caused by Volterra-type screw dislocation in the medium. Fourier transforms are used to reduce the dislocation ...

INTRODUCTION There has been a discrepancy between in vivo and in vitro experiments investigating the load carrying capacity of human lumbar spine. A follower load concept was introduced to explain this discrepancy [1]. A follower load is a compressive load applied along a path that approximates the tangent to the curve of the column. The trunk muscles are supposed to generate the follower load ...

The introduction of carbon-fibre reinforced plastics in load bearing automotive structures provides a great potential to reduce vehicle weight and fuel consumption. A reduction in overall manufacturing cost can be realised through part integration and use of cost-effective materials such as heavy tow carbon fibre. There is a current drive within the automotive industry to develop the technologi...

ARELLANO, C. J., C. S. LAYNE, D. P. O’CONNOR, M. SCOTT-PANDORF, and M. J. KURZ. Does Load Carrying Influence dynamical system analysis to investigate the effect of carrying external loads on the stability of the locomotive system and sagittal plane kinematics. We hypothesized that carrying an additional load at the waist would 1) decrease the dynamic stability of the locomotive system and 2) ca...

A biomechanical model for studying lumbar muscle load sharing for a class of physical tasks that involve gravitational loading (holding weights) of the upper body in an erect posture is presented. The model assumes that the lumbar muscles balance the externally applied flexion and lateral bending moments. The concept of a 'loading plane' whose axes are the two bending moments is introduced. Any...

A full-field optical method called Digital Gradient Sensing (DGS) for measuring stress gradients due to an impact load on a planar transparent sheet is presented. The technique is based on the elasto-optic effect exhibited by transparent solids due to an imposed stress field causing angular deflections of light rays quantified using 2D digital image correlation method. The measured angular defl...

Previous publications have reported on the flexibility of ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) only in the same plane as the applied load. This paper reports on a test apparatus developed to detect the flexibility of an AFO in 5 degrees of freedom when subjected to a plantar/dorsiflexion moment, a medial/lateral moment or a torque. A moment applied to an AFO in one plane induces angulation and translation...