42-647 Continuum Biomechanics: Solid and Fluid Mechanics of Physiological Systems
12 units, Carnegie Mellon University
This course provides a general survey of the solid and fluid mechanics of physiological systems, within the framework of continuum mechanics. The main objective of the course is to understand mathematical modeling of solid materials such as bone and tissues, and fluid mechanics of blood and other biofluids such as synovial fluid, etc. The course as a whole encourages class participation and discussion in a seminartype fashion. The course begins with a historical review of the subject followed by a review of vector and tensor analysis, before discussing various measures of deformation and stress formulations. The development and understanding of appropriate constitutive models for particular problems are at the core of this course. Both analytical and to some extent experimental results are presented through readings from reports in recent journals and the relevance of these results to the solution of unsolved problems is highlighted. The intent is to provide the basic ideas of continuum mechanics for engineering and science students with little or no background in biomechanics or mathematical modeling, with particular emphasis on the application of quantitative and system perspectives to fluid and solid mechanics problems. In addition to looking at various examples with physiological applications, the last few weeks of the course are dedicated to discussing individuallycrafted research projects for the students.
Prerequisites: none listed
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