A finite element formulation of muscle contraction

The ability to contract is a unique feature of muscular material, as compared to technical materials. The contractile stress generated by muscle cells, acts along the muscle fibre direction, and has been shown to depend on time, elapsed since activation of the cell, on fibre strain and on fibre strain rate. In this paper we combine the equation of conservation of momentum with an existing description of the constitutive behaviour of myocardial tissue and convert the resulting equations into a numerical formulation, which is implemented in DIANA. Results of simulations of several contraction experiments are shown.