Biomechanics

From ArticleWorld

Biomechanics is the study of living things and how parts of the body move, bear weight or interact with each other. This can involve the microscopic study of biomechanics or the macroscopic study of biomechanics.

Macroscopic biomechanics

The study of biomechanics is important when determining how the body bears weight and how the various parts of the extremities move. This is very important when deciding on a prosthesis for an amputee or for athletes, whose trainers study the minute details of biomechanics to improve an athlete’s performance. Biomechanics studies the particular load on a joint and helps manufacturers of artificial joints create a product that can bear a load and can function like a normal joint.

Muscles and ligaments can be studied from a biomechanical viewpoint. Biomechanics looks at the interplay between muscles and help evaluate situations where a muscle becomes too strong for the tendon that must keep the muscle attached to the bone. When such a thing happens, the tendon is at risk for rupturing.

In other animals, biomechanics is concerned with different things than in humans. For example, the aerodynamics of birds and insects in flight or the hydrodynamics of swimming fish are important to fields of study such as aviation and ship building.

Microscopic Biomechanics

Biomechanics is concerned with the study of materials the body uses to create structure. For example, the skin carries the biomechanics it does because of the various amounts of elastin, collagen and proteoglycans in the tissue. Human skin is designed to stretch more in one way than another because of the biomechanics of the collagen and elastin fibers which are arranged in a particular way to give it this unique elasticity that favors one direction or another.

Microscopic biomechanics studies the flow of blood through large and small blood vessels. The science of blood flow is considerably different when blood is flowing in large vessels than when it flows through capillaries. This is important in the study of hypertension and other blood vessel disorders.

Bones are studied from a microscopic level. During a bone fracture, the bone remodels according to the load placed on it. The bone becomes stronger along the lines of stress, a process that is predictable on a biomechanical level. The study of microscopic biomechanics has made possible the use of things such as bone stimulators that promote the regrowth of bone at the site of a fracture.