{"id":12778,"date":"2024-01-31T12:33:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T20:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/?p=12778"},"modified":"2024-01-31T12:33:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T20:33:28","slug":"physicists-discover-inherent-property-of-biological-materials-that-explains-mechanical-efficiency-of-tendons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/2024\/01\/31\/physicists-discover-inherent-property-of-biological-materials-that-explains-mechanical-efficiency-of-tendons\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicists Discover Inherent Property of Biological Materials that Explains Mechanical Efficiency of Tendons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Harvey Mudd College physics professor Mark Ilton and four of his students are celebrating the publication of their work in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface<\/em>, which publishes\u00a0articles of high-quality research at the intersection of the physical and life sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead author Lucien Tsai \u201924 along with Ilton and co-authors Paco Navarro \u201925, Ingrid Wu \u201923 and Taylor Levinson \u201925 performed summer research in Ilton\u2019s Physics of Soft Matter (PoSM) Lab that resulted in their paper, \u201cViscoelastic materials are most energy efficient when loaded and unloaded at equal rates<\/a>.\u201d As the paper\u2019s self-explanatory title suggests, the research describes the results of the group\u2019s investigation of the mechanical energy efficiency of biological springs (e.g. tendons).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy understanding the properties of these materials,\u201d Tsai says, \u201cwe can extract principles for the design of bio-inspired spring-driven mechanisms. This study examines how the differences between the loading and unloading rates of these springs shape their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings, obtained through innovative mechanical experiments, and, in collaboration with biologists from the University of California, Irvine, unveil a crucial connection: symmetric rates, characterized by equal loading and unloading durations, offer superior mechanical efficiency. \u201cUsing a mathematical model, we find that an inherent property of biological materials is responsible for this rate-dependent effect: their hierarchical structure that imparts a broad range of relaxation times results in an efficient response to symmetric rates,\u201d says Tsai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ilton says Tsai, who worked on the project since its inception in 2021, helped steer the research in a different direction than Ilton had expected. \u201cMy original suggestion about how to model the tendon’s response to different loading and unloading rates was completely inadequate,\u201d Ilton says. \u201cI suggested a simplified model with a single characteristic time in the material. It was Lucien who had the idea to take a different approach, and he included a range of characteristic times in his model of the tendons. It was this insight that led us to one of the paper’s main findings: the reason why tendons are so mechanically efficient when you load and unload them at the same rate is because they have a broad range of characteristic times in their material relaxation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving your first paper published is an exciting moment!\u201d says Ilton of his students. \u201cThe students discovered something new, which can be a really addictive experience. Not only does this paper help the students establish their track record as scientists, but they also experienced a rigorous peer review process. I think that having to address critique of your work in a positive way builds skill and character, which is something that translates well into life more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project was made possible by donors to the College\u2019s Physics Summer Research Fund and a grant from the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvey Mudd College physics professor Mark Ilton and four of his students are celebrating the publication of their work in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":12666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,967,213,24,26,30],"class_list":["post-12778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-general-feed","category-grant","category-physics","category-research","category-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12779,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12778\/revisions\/12779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}