Any attempt made to separate energy into electrical and mechanical parts may lead to inconsistencies as they do not necessarily decouple. This is illustrated by application of the energy density function in the linear theory of piezoelasticity. By assuming that a critical energy density function prevails at the onset of crack initiation, it is possible to establish the relative size of an inner...

Pharyngeal and diaphragm muscles contract and relax in synergy, which is why it was decided to compare their mechanical performance throughout the overall load continuum. The effects of fatigue were also studied. The isotonic mechanics of rat sternohyoid (SH; n=10) and diaphragm (D; n=10) were investigated in vitro. Force and length were measured in muscles contracting from zero load up to isom...

This paper presents development of a wearable force sensor system for human dynamics analysis. Forces and moments are detected by combining responses from eight load cells fabricated on a parallel connection foundation. Finite element method was used for designing preliminary mechanical structures and simulating the mechanical stresses and strains in the load cells. Sensitivity of the load cell...

Runners do not have a greater prevalence of knee osteoarthritis (OA) than nonrunners. The hypothesis that joint loads in running do not cause OA is forwarded. Two mechanisms are proposed: 1) cumulative load, which is surprisingly low in running, is more important for OA risk than peak load, and 2) running conditions cartilage to withstand the mechanical stresses of running.

Motivated by the operation of myogenic (self-oscillatory) insect flight muscle, we study a model consisting of a large number of identical oscillatory contractile elements joined in a chain, whose end is attached to a damped mass-spring oscillator. When the inertial load is small, the serial coupling favors an antisynchronous state in which the extension of one oscillator is compensated by the ...

M. Huhtala,1 A. V. Krasheninnikov,2 J. Aittoniemi,1 S. J. Stuart,3 K. Nordlund,2 and K. Kaski1 1Laboratory of Computational Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 9203, 02015 HUT, Finland 2Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 43, FIN-0014 University of Helsinki, Finland 3Department of Chemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA (Received 10 November 2003; rev...

This paper presents the design, optimization and manufacturing of a novel micro-fabricated load cell based on a double-ended tuning fork. The device geometry and operating voltages are optimized for maximum force resolution and range, subject to a number of manufacturing and electromechanical constraints. All optimizations are enabled by analytical modeling (verified by selected finite elements...

Based on a detailed crossbridge model for individual myosin II motors, we systematically study the influence of mechanical load and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) concentration on small myosin II ensembles made from different isoforms. For skeletal and smooth muscle myosin II, which are often used in actomyosin gels that reconstitute cell contractility, fast forward movement is restricted to a sm...

analysis and prediction of structural response to static or dynamic loading requires prediction of concrete response tovariable load histories. the constitutive equations for the mechanical behavior of concrete capable of seeing damage effects or crack growth procedure under loading/unloading/reloading was developed upon micro-plane framework. the proposed damage formulation has been built on t...

polyvinyl ester green composites were synthesized with walnut shell powder (wsp) by in-situ polymerization technique. the green composites have been evaluated for mechanical properties such as tensile strength, tensile modulus and hardness. sliding wear loss, specific wear rate and coefficient of friction were investigated by using computerized pin-on–disc machine at normal applied loads of 20,...