Continuum Mechanics Applied to the Biomechanics of Motion

Abstract

Continuum mechanics is the discipline that studies the motion and deformation of material bodies and is at the basis of both solid mechanics and fluid mechanics. This work aims at highlighting how a basic education in modern continuum mechanics can be of fundamental importance not only in the biomechanics of tissue but also in the biomechanics of movement. The latter is largely based on rigid body mechanics, which can be considered as a simple particular case of the general theory of continuum mechanics. As an example, a straightforward methodology for the extraction of the angular velocity from motion analysis data is illustrated. The method is based on a quantity that is more primitive than the angular velocity: the spin tensor.