spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ker, R. F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ker, R. F.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 202, Issue 23 3315-3324, Copyright © 1999 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

The design of soft collagenous load-bearing tissues

RF Ker
School of Biology, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. r.f. ker@leeds.ac.uk

Tendon, articular cartilage and the human heel pad are all soft load-bearing collagenous tissues but are designed according to utterly different micromechanical principles. Tendon is (probably) a fibre-reinforced composite material. The mechanical properties of cartilage depend on osmotic pressure developed within an aqueous proteoglycan gel and resisted by tension in a collagenous network. The micromechanics of the heel pad have not previously been described quantitatively. Order-of-magnitude calculations are introduced to assess a model based on a fluid-filled cushion. The processes of biological design are illustrated by considering tendon. Structural design determines the tendon's cross-sectional area relative to that of its muscle and, hence, the maximum stress to which the tendon may be subjected in life. Stress-in-life varies widely between tendons. Material design includes the development of compressive stiffness in the regions where transverse loads arise. More generally, the fatigue quality of each tendon is adjusted to suit its stress-in-life. The correlation between fatigue quality and stress-in-life means that every tendon is subject, on average, to a comparable rate of fatigue damage. Homeostasis requires that routine repair can keep up with this rate of damage.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
K. J. Mach
Mechanical and biological consequences of repetitive loading: crack initiation and fatigue failure in the red macroalga Mazzaella
J. Exp. Biol., April 1, 2009; 212(7): 961 - 976.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Br. J. Sports. Med.Home page
N L Grigg, S C Wearing, and J E Smeathers
Eccentric calf muscle exercise produces a greater acute reduction in Achilles tendon thickness than concentric exercise
Br. J. Sports Med., April 1, 2009; 43(4): 280 - 283.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1999