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Trunk stiffness is an important parameter for trunk stability analysis and needs to be evaluated accurately. Discrepancies regarding the dependence of trunk stiffness on the direction of movement in the sagittal plane suggest inherent sources of error that require explanation. In contrast to the common assumption that the muscle stiffness remains constant prior to the induction of a reflex during position perturbations, it is postulated that muscle-stiffness changes of nonneural origin occur and alter the experimental trunk stiffness, causing it to depend on the sagittal direction. This is confirmed through reinterpretation of existing test data for a healthy subject, numerical simulation, and sensitivity analysis using a biomechanical model. The trunk stiffness is determined through a static approach (in forward and backward directions) and compared with the model stiffness for assumed scenarios involving deactivated muscles. The difference in stiffness between the opposite directions reaches 17.5% without a preload and decreases when a moderate vertical preload is applied. The increased muscle activation induced by preloads or electrical stimuli explains the apparent discrepancies observed in previous studies. The experimental stiffness invariably remains between low and high model-stiffness estimates based on extreme scenarios of the postulated losses of muscle activation, thereby confirming our hypothesis.

In this paper, a new 1D constitutive model for shape memory alloy using strain and temperature as control variables is presented. The new formulation is restricted to the 1D stress case and takes into account the martensite reorientation and the asymmetry of the SMA behavior in tension and compression. Numerical implementation of the new model in a finite element code was conducted. The numerical results for superelastic behavior in tension and compression tests are presented and were compared to experimental data taken from the literature. Other numerical tests are presented, showing the model’s ability to reproduce the main aspects of SMA behavior such as the shape memory effect and the martensite reorientation under cyclic loading. Finally, to demonstrate the utility of the new constitutive model, a dynamic test of a bi-clamped SMA bending beam under forced oscillation is described.

The objective of the present research is to obtain enhanced heat and reduce skin friction rates. Different nanofluids are employed over an exponentially stretching surface to analyze the heat transfer coefficients. The mathematical model for the problem has been derived with the help of the Rivilin–Erickson tensor and an appropriate boundary layer approximation theory. The current problem has been tackled with the help of the boundary value problem algorithm in Matlab. The convergence criterion, or tolerance for this particular problem, is set at 10−6. The outcomes are obtained to demonstrate the characteristics of different parameters, such as the temperature exponent, volume fraction, and stretching ratio parameter graphically. Silver-water nanofluid proved to have a high-temperature transfer rate when compared with zinc-water and copper-water nanofluid. Moreover, the outcomes of the study are validated by providing a comparison with already published work. The results of this study were found to be in complete agreement with those of Magyari and Keller and also with Lui for heat transfer. The novelty of this work is the comparative inspection of enhanced heat transfer rates and reduced drag and lift coefficients, particularly for three nanofluids, namely, zinc-water, copper-water, and silver-water, over an exponentially stretching. In general, this study suggests more frequent exploitation of all the examined nanofluids, especially-water nanofluid. Moreover, specifically under the obtained outcomes in this research, the examined nanofluid, Ag-water, has great potential to be used in flat plate solar collectors. Ag-water can also be tested in natural convective flat plate solar collector systems under real solar effects.

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A human trunk model was developed to simulate the effect of a high vertical loading on trunk flexural stiffness. A force-length relationship is attributed to each muscle of the multi-body model. Trunk stiffness and muscle forces were evaluated experimentally and numerically for various applied loads. Experimental evaluation of trunk stiffness was carried out by measuring changes in reaction force following a sudden horizontal displacement at the T10 level prior to paraspinal reflexes induction. Results showed that the trunk stiffness increases under small applied loads, peaks when the loads were further increased and decreases when higher loads are applied. A sensitivity analysis to muscle force-length relationship is provided to determine the model's limitations. This model pointed out the importance of taking into account the changes in muscle length to evaluate the effect of spinal loads beyond the safe limit that cannot be evaluated experimentally and to predict the trunk instability under vertical load.

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