Mesh generation and multi-scale simulation of a contracting muscle–tendon complex

Abstract

The multi-scale character of skeletal muscle models requires simulations with high spatial resolution to capture all relevant effects. This naturally involves high computational load that can only be tackled by parallel computations. We simulate electrophysiology and muscle contraction using a state-of-the-art, biophysical chemo-electro-mechanical model that requires meshes of the 3D domain with embedded, aligned 1D meshes for muscle fibers. We present novel algorithms to construct highly-resolved meshes with robust properties for real muscle geometries from surface triangulations. We demonstrate their use and suitability in a simulation of the biceps brachii muscle and tendons. In addition, the respective simulations showcase several functional enhancements of our simulation framework OpenDiHu.