Code A5
Type Compulsory
Semester A
ECTS credits 4
Teaching Staff Georgios Athanassiou, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics

Despina Deligianni, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics

Dimosthenis Mavrilas, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics

The aims of the course are

  1. To make the student familiar with the main measurement and modelling methods for the characterization of the musculo-skeletal system, based on basic mechanical physics concepts and rigid body assumption.
  2. To provide the student with basic knowledge necessary for biomechanical modelling of musculo-skeletal and cardio-circulatory problems by applying basic continuum mechanics and fluid-dynamics concepts, integrated with modelling approaches originally developed for the special application to mechanics of biologic tissues.

The contents of the course in brief are:

  1. Introduction to biomechanics: brief history of biomechanics.
  2. Kinematics in biomechanics. Statics and dynamics in biomechanics: 2-D and 3-D models of the musculoskeletal system.
  3. Human motion analysis.
  4. Deformable body mechanics: stress, strain, constitutive equations (elastic and viscous materials, etc.).
  5. Skeletal biomechanics: bone and soft connective tissues (ligament, tendon, cartilage).
  6. Functional adaptation and mechanobiology.
  7. Muscle modelling.
  8. Hemodynamics: basic concepts of fluid dynamics. Vascular system modelling. Mechanics of the cardiac muscle: Mechanical characteristic of the heart as deformable tissue, pressurised structure and muscle.