Passive Mechanical Characterization of Human Skeletal Muscle Rectus Femoris of Sri Lankan Test Subjects

Human Musculoskeletal System is involved in activities of daily living. The mechanical and numerical modeling of the skeletal muscles are important in sports medicine, orthopedics, forensic medicine and tissue transplant surgeries. This is the inaugural study of this nature in Sri Lanka and the objective of the study is to assess the mechanical properties of "Rectus Femoris" muscle. It was known that mechanical properties, including the toughness of skeletal muscle tissue, vary with the location of the sample along the muscle. Hence, the properties are highly inhomogeneous. Nevertheless, it was observed that the evolution of `Damage' parameter of the samples is comparable in all samples. These observations are in contrast to traditional engineering materials used in design and manufacturing. It was also observed that properties vary with the sample of each cadaver. The main reasons for this inhomogeneity are due to vivid factors including medical condition, medicinal usage, nutrient level, physical exercises and genetics based factors of the soft tissue samples, etc. The study can be extended to other skeletal muscles to extract mechanical properties, and these properties are vital specifically in the selection of bio-compatible biomaterial to be used in Tissue Transplant Surgeries, and the data extracted are highly useful in Sport medicines, Orthopedics and Forensic Medicine and Tissue Transplant Surgeries.