300138 VO Biomechanics for Biologists (2020W)

The course aims to build up the knowledge of
• engineering concepts that are applicable to biological systems;
• methods and approaches useful for analysis of biomechanical properties and motion of organisms;
• how evolution and adaptation are reflected in the biomechanics of living things

Course plan (chapters and subchapters have unequal size, length of topics may be adjusted to match time and students' interests)
1. Introduction (brief history and orienteering, Newtonian physics and the SI system of units)
2. Materials
2.1 solids (stress and strain, curve, Hookean materials, Young modulus, elastic and plastic behaviour, yield stress, the energy of failure, crack propagation, composites, strain homeostasis, engineering structures)
(TASK: use tensile stress data to extract material properties)
2.2 fluids, viscoelastic solids and non-Newtonian fluids
(TASK: Explore Finite Elements Analysis for a cantilever beam)
3. Motion
3.1 solid skeletons (bones as cantilevers, moving segments, muscle, locomotion and energy)
(TASK: Explore Multibody Dynamics Analysis for human and ostrich locomotion)
3.2 hydrostatic skeletons (fibre reinforced hydrostats, moving a hydrostatic body)
3.3 fluid dynamics (viscosity and drag, velocity and pressure, boundary layer, flying, swimming, internal flows)
(TASK: Explore Finite Element Analysis for internal flow of fluid in a pipe)