Three-dimensional representations of skeletal muscles for use in simulations of human motion

A methodology to decompose three-dimensional (3D) muscle geometries in lines of action (or fibres) is presented and applied to models of hip-spanning muscles segmented from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Kinematic simulations of functional movements of the hip joint were performed and the fibres’ moment arms computed. The proposed approach produced ranges of moment arms comparable to validated, but computationally more demanding, finite element models.