Finite strains of viscoelastic muscle tissue (Q1113726)

The mechanical behaviour of muscle tissue whose characteristic feature is the capacity to contract under the effect of factors of non-mechanical nature has been investigated. This work is the development of the phenomenological model of biologically active behaviour of a material under the joint action of mechanical forces and a signal of electrochemical nature in the finite strain case. The authors used a relaxation type of relationship for both viscous and biological strain components. As a result, the current state of the muscle is determined by the prehistory of strain and stimulation. The authors then studied the isothermal approximation for a one component transversally isotropic homogeneous medium. This work might be very useful for those researchers working on the mechanical modelling of muscle contractions.