In Vivo Measurements of the Mechanical Properties of Human Skin and Muscle by Inverse Finite Element Method Combined with the Indentation Test

Abstract

Biomechanical properties of human skin and muscle are important in several domains, particularly for impact biomechanics, rehabilitation engineering and sports science. However, the mechanical behavior of human skin and muscle in compression remains poorly characterized. This study proposed a new method to determine mechanical properties of human skin and muscle by inverse finite element method combined with the indentation test. The nonlinear property of human skin and muscle was best suited by Jamus-Green-Simpson strain energy function. Parameters of equation could directly be applied in the available material properties in MSC.Marc 2008 – a finite element analysis (FEA) software. The parameters of the equation were obtained from trial and error by using the FEA software. The force-displacement relation from FEA was compared with the experiment; the average error was 0.34 %.