Contacting me

Email (the best way to reach me)

Phone
 jmbach@mines.edu
 303-384-2161 (CSM)
Joel M. Bach, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mechanical
Engineering
Director, CBRR
Associate Clinical Professor, UCD
Assistive Technology Partners
Orthopaedic Biomechanics Labs
Office Hours

General Office hours

 Brown Building, room W310H.
Course Info

Web page
 http://inside.mines.edu/~jmbach
 Wednesday 10-11
 Here you will find
○ My schedule
○ Announcements including last minute changes to
office hours
○ A link to the class web site
 Thursday 11-12
 Additional hours by appointment

Office
I’m on several committees, so some office
hours may change from week to week. I’ll
keep my web page updated and try to make
in-class announcements.
 Syllabus
 Schedule
 Lecture notes (password: “__________”)
 HW and exam solutions, etc.
Participation
Classroom Etiquette
I really like classes where we can get
discussions going
 I will try some things out to see if we can
facilitate discussions
 If you have ideas, let me know.


Treat everyone with respect
No cell phones (please silence the
ringer and tone down the buzz)
 No texting
 No passing notes back and forth
 No surfing the web on your
laptop/tablet/phone/Google Glass/etc.

1
Focus
Focus

This course builds off of the Introduction
to Biomechanical Engineering course
offered in the fall
 We will go into more depth, perform
more analysis, and add dynamics.

Injury
Accidental
The course will focus on the
biomechanics of musculoskeletal injury
since understanding injury will require
developing an understanding of normal
biomechanics along the way.
Injury is the damage sustained by
tissues of the body in response to
physical trauma
 Injury isn’t always accidental
 Injury isn’t always negative
 Injury and accident are not synonyms.

Intentional
Accidental or Intentional ???
2
Prerequisites

Students are expected to have taken (or
get my permission if you haven’t already
done so)
Prerequisites

Info you should be familiar with the
information from Introduction to
Biomechanical Engineering.
 MEGN 330
Introduction to Biomechanical
Engineering
 MNGN 241 Statics
 MEGN 315 Dynamics
 CEEN 311
Mechanics of Materials.
Prerequisites

Everyone should be comfortable with
statics problems, basic dynamics
problems, and mechanics of materials.
Textbook (optional)

An anatomy text would be helpful
Textbook (required)
Basic Biomechanics of the
Musculoskeletal System; M.
Nordin and V. Frankel;
ISBN 978-1609133351
 The book should currently
be available at the
bookstore
 Note: this is a new book for
this class.

Grading

 Homework (15%)
 The Anatomy Coloring Book (Kapit &
Elson) ($15-$20)
 Hollinshead's Functional Anatomy of
the Limbs and Back ($60)
 Color Atlas of Human Anatomy ($50)
 Just about any other anatomy text.
In the past, the breakdown has been
 Exam #1 (25%)
 Exam #2 (25%)
 Project Report (25%)
 Project Presentation (10%)

I’m not tied to this and am willing to adjust.
3
Projects
Projects
 Scope
 Engineering analysis of a particular
biomechanics problem (injury, loading
situation, activity) including review of
medical and/or engineering literature
pertaining to its mechanisms, effects,
and repair, as relevant.
 You
may work in groups of up to 3 on
the project.
Examples of Previous Projects
Examples of Previous Projects
Knee injuries in football
Modeling the basics of the human vertical jump
 Analysis of impact of golf club into the ground
 Rehabilitation of an irregular gait cycle
 Preventing ACL injuries in skiing
 Internal fixation fasteners.

Examples of Previous Projects
Projects – Written Report


Ankle ligament reconstruction
Amplitude and frequency of sway
 FE analysis of knee
 Tibia fracture
 Meniscus tears
 Rodeo injuries
 Speedflex helmet.
Effects of space environment on the
musculoskeletal system
 Cervical buckling & whiplash
 Implantable ceramic sensors for biomechanics
analysis
 Design and construction of a shock absorbing
crutch
 Finite Element Analysis of MCL
 Snowboard Injuries.



Written Report (25% of grade)
 5 to 15 pages, double spaced
 Length will vary with number of equations,
diagrams, etc.
 The work must be your own. Use appropriate
reference and/or quotation practices
 I will provide more details/guidelines later.
4
Projects - Presentations

Presentation Scheduling
Presentations (10% of grade)
We typically do the presentations during
the last few days of class. This of
course is when all of your other projects
are due
 Would you like to do these presentations
earlier in the semester? Mid April would
be logical
 We have 13 registered for the course.
Depending upon the number of teams
this will take 2-4 days.

 10 minutes
 5 minutes Q&A
 Can use PowerPoint, overheads, blackboard,
etc
 Provide a one-page summary of the key points
of your presentation.
Topics
Topics


Applications
Injury
 Orthopaedics
 Cause
 Sports/performance
 Prevention
 Work/Occupational
activities
 Repair.
 Rehabilitation
 Prosthetics.
Topics
Topics


Functional anatomy
Natural biomaterials

 bones
 Tissue types - bone, ligament,
cartilage, tendon, muscle, nerve
 Properties - physiological,
mechanical
 Injury and failure modes
○ Acute
The skeletal system
 joints
 connective tissues

The muscular system
 types of muscle
 properties.
○ Chronic.
5
Biomechanics
The study or application of mechanics to
biological systems.
 The study of the forces that act on the
body and their effects on the body’s
movement, size, shape, and structure
 We can study normal, abnormal, and
injury biomechanics.

Who uses musculoskeletal
biomechanics?
Who uses musculoskeletal
biomechanics?
Orthopaedic, sports medicine, and
rehabilitation doctors
 Osteopaths and Chiropractors
 Physical and occupational therapists
 Athletic trainers, coaches, and athletes
 Kinesiologists
 Ergonomists.

Engineering Principles
Challenges

Statics
Mechanics of materials
 Kinematics
 Dynamics.




Biomedical and biomechanical
engineers
 Medical device companies
 Sports and safety equipment designers
 NASA
 Automotive and aircraft companies
 Military agencies
 Medical/legal consultants.
Deformable bodies
Large degree of redundancy
 Most joints are not simple hinge or balland-socket joints
 Most tissues are not linearly elastic, but
rather are viscoelastic
 Most tissues can repair or remodel.
6
Challanges

Everyone is different
 Gender differences
 Racial differences
 Age differences
 Other individual differences
Soft tissue motion
 Language !!!

Figure from “The Human Machine”, Columbia University Press
Definitions you should be
comfortable with
Statics, kinematics, kinetics, dynamics
Anthropometry
 Kinesiology
 Epidemiology.


Risk Factor

Something that contributes to increasing
the probability of an injury
 Occupation
 Activity pattern
 Age, sex, history of previous injuries
 Recreational pursuits
 Environmental conditions.
Risk Factor

Assessing causation in sport injury
Adapted, by permission, from W.H. Meeuwisse, 1994, "Assessing causation in sport injury: A multifactorial
model," Clin J Sport Med 4(3):168.
7