Simulate muscle eccentric contraction

[Xiao Hu]

Hi,

I am working on simulating muscle eccentric contraction as done in animal experiments with in vitro setup. Basically, the muscle is first being fully activated, and then stretched to certain extent, like 20% of Lo. The muscle forces are being measured. I built a simple model with one muscle and on joint with only one translational DoF. This Dof will be used to stretch the muscle. I am hoping to use simulation to predict the muscle force during eccentric contraction.

I wonder what would be the best way to simulate muscle eccentric contraction experiments? I certainly need to prescribe the activation of muscle and the length change of the muscle-tendon unit, as done in the experiments. But, the simulation seems not fit those traditional inverse or forward dynamic simulations, as activation and length of MT unit are prescribed. Should I just provide a state file with translation of the joint (essentially muscle stretch) and muscle activation, and then use plot tool to plot out muscle force? Or is there other more appropriate way to do it?

Thanks a lot!

[Xiao Hu]

If eventually I would like to use Matlab script to automate the process so that I can simulate eccentric contraction at various muscle activation levels and look at the developed muscle forces, what would be the best way of doing it?