A Systematic Survey of the Realm of Biomechanics: A Mechanical Engineer's Perspective

A Systematic Survey of the Realm of Biomechanics: A Mechanical Engineer's Perspective

Deepak Mahapatra, Shubhankar Bhowmick, Shubhashis Sanyal
Copyright: © 2019 |Pages: 35
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-8235-9.ch001
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Abstract

The area of biomechanics is challenging and broad as it involves multidisciplinary concepts of engineering together with functional knowledge of biosciences. The area is rapidly evolving and new additions to it are being made daily. A survey that may help a beginner to have a general look on the broader aspects of the sub-domains of biomechanics is not available. The chapter aims to overview the realm of biomechanics and provide an introduction to various areas with mention to researches carried out. A broad survey of various areas of biomechanics from a mechanical engineer's perspective is reported in this chapter. Prominent areas like biomechanics of human motion; bone and joint biomechanics; biomechanics of spine; biomechanics of head, shoulder, and muscles; biomechanical analysis of heart and lungs; biomechanical analysis of arteries and veins; and MEMS in biomechanics are explored. Though it is difficult to include all the developments relevant to the above areas, the authors have focused primarily on a few prominent studies made in the last two decades in various domains.
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Biomechanics of Human Motion

Kinesiology (Kinetics + Physiology) is an area under biomechanics specific to human movement. It is the study of human movement with a closer and finer view. Thorough knowledge of human anatomy is a prerequisite as it provides essential labels for musculoskeletal structure and joint motion relevant to human motion. Before proceeding to the survey part it is customary to have an overview of the nomenclature/ notations used to describe human movement. Figure 1 and 2 give a sufficient exposure of the notations generally used. A number of books (Hall, 2011; Kundson, 2007; Tozeren, 2000; Nigg et al, 1999; Peterson et al, 2008; Andris, 2004) can be referred for an in depth study. In (Manal et al, 2004) authors have categorized study of human movement according to their application in five groups viz. motion control (as in a humanoid robot), pathological treatment (design improvements in prosthetic and orthopedic devices), sports/athlete improvisation, ergonomics, and computer animation/simulation. Researchers are working widely in each of these specific areas.

Figure 1.

Representation of a person through reference section planes- a) The sagittal plane divides the front view into left and right half, b) The frontal plane divides the top view into anterior(towards chest) and posterior(towards back) portions, c) The transverse (horizontal) plane divides the front view into two parts- superior(top) and inferior(bottom)

978-1-5225-8235-9.ch001.f01
(OpenStax College, n.d.)

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