Mathematical model of pennate muscle.

The purpose of this study is to create a new mathematical model of pennate striated skeletal muscle. This new model describes behaviour of isolated flat pennate muscle in two dimensions (2D) by taking into account that rheological properties of muscle fibres depend on their planar arrangement. A new mathematical model is implemented in two types: 1) numerical model of unipennate muscle (unipennate model); 2) numerical model of bipennate muscle (bipennate model). Applying similar boundary conditions and similar load, proposed numerical models had been tested. Obtained results were compared with results of numerical researches by applying a Hill-Zajac muscle model (this is a Hill type muscle model, in which the angle of pennation is taken into consideration) and a fusiform muscle model (a muscle is treated as a structure composed of serially linked different mechanical properties parts)

Vision-based motion analysis of a kitesurfer

Kitesurfing is a relatively recent phenomenon with raising popularity worldwide – a recently developed extreme water sport considered a high-risk injury sport. It combines elements of several other sports, in particular sailing, surfing, windsurfing, wakeboarding, and snowboarding. The main purpose of authors’ research in the present paper is to use a vision system technique for measuring a kitesurfer’s body movements in order to analyze group of activated muscles during take-off and handle pass maneuver reproduced in the laboratory conditions

Motion analysis of a kitesurfer employing a vision-based measurement system

Kitesurfing is a relatively new phenomenon with rising popularity worldwide – a recently developed extreme watersport considered a high-risk injury sport. It combines elements of several other sports, in particular, sailing, surfing, windsurfing, wakeboarding, and snowboarding. The main purpose of authors’ research in the present paper is to use a vision-based system for measuring a kitesurfer’s body movements in order to analyze the group of activated muscles during take-off and basic freestyle trick. The authors put a special emphasis on the handle pass trick, as it is very effective and, at the same time, one of the most destructive tricks for the kitesurfer’s shoulder joint. Another issue examined in this paper was how to perform kitesurfing tricks in laboratory conditions in order to measure kinematics in natural environmental

Analysis of muscles' behaviour. Part II. The computational model of muscles' group acting on the elbow joint

The purpose of this paper is to present the computational model of muscles' group describing the movements of flexion/extension at the elbow joint in the sagittal plane of the body when the forearm is being kept in the fixed state of supination/pronation. The method of evaluating the muscle forces is discussed in detail. This method is the basis for the quantitative and qualitative verification of the proposed computational model of muscles' group. Applying this computational model, the forces of real muscles belonging to the muscles' group can be evaluated without using any optimization technique

Rigid Finite Element Method in Analysis of Dynamics of Offshore Structures

This book describes new methods developed for modelling dynamics of machines commonly used in the offshore industry. These methods are based both on the rigid finite element method, used for the description of link deformations, and on homogeneous transformations and joint coordinates, which is applied to the modelling of multibody system dynamics. In this monograph, the bases of the rigid finite element method  and homogeneous transformations are introduced. Selected models for modelling dynamics of offshore devices are then verified both by using commercial software, based on the finite element method, as well as by using additional methods. Examples of mathematical models of offshore machines, such as a gantry crane for Blowout-Preventer (BOP) valve block transportation, a pedestal crane with shock absorber, and pipe laying machinery are presented. Selected problems of control in offshore machinery as well as dynamic optimization in device control are also discussed. Additionally, numerical simulations of pipe-laying operations taking active reel drive into account are shown