DATE:

TO: Dr. Chadd Clary

FROM:

SUBJECT: Hill Muscle Models

In response to the questions provided, this document discusses the findings about Hill
muscle models and effect of Hill model parameters on F-V plot and stress relaxation
curves.

FINDINGS

1. The first finding was the influence of F-V model parameters (F 0, V0, a) on the F-V
curve. The effect of isometric muscle force (F 0) and maximum muscle velocity
(V0) can be clearly seen in Figure 1 and 2 and is pretty straightforward. When the
parameter F0 is increased, the curve becomes steeper towards the vertical axis
indicating higher muscle force at zero velocity. Similarly, as seen in Figure 2, with
the increase in V0, maximum velocity at zero muscle force increases representing
faster muscle twitch and the F-V curve gets extended more in V-axis. As for the
next parameter i.e. dynamic coefficient (a), it can be seen from Figure 3, with the
increase in dynamic coefficient while keeping other parameters constant; for a
given muscle force, the muscle velocity is comparatively higher and vice versa.

Figure 1: Effect of F0 on F-V curve

 Figure 2: Effect of V0 on F-V curve

Figure 3: Effect of a on F-V curve

2. For the provided F-V experimental data of a specific frog, least square principle
along with the data itself were used to obtain the F-V model parameters (F 0, V0,
a). The parameter F0 is isometric force muscle i.e. force at zero muscle velocity
and is equal to 0.4 N/mm2 as obtained from the experimental results. Also,
parameter V0 represents maximum velocity corresponding to zero muscle force
and is equal to 1.7 mm/s (obtained from experimental data). For obtaining the
 dynamic coefficient (a), the least square principle was applied. The Hills muscle
equation relating muscle force to velocity is given as,
aV0
Fv+ av+ Fb−F 0 b=0 where , b=
F0
The sum of square of residual errors from this equation when the experimental
data are substituted as Fi and vi is given by,
N 2
aV0
i=1
(
∅=∑ F i v i+ a v i + F −a V 0
F0 i )
Making the sum of square of error least with respect to the parameter a, we obtain
the value of a.
d∅
i. e . =0
da
→ a=0.04 N /mm 2
The graph of measured data along with the graph from model prediction using the
above obtained parameters is shown in Figure 4. The estimated curve fits with the
experimental data with high accuracy.

Figure 4: Graph of measured data and corresponding model prediction of F-V plot

3. The third observation was the influence of Hill muscle model parameters (b, K PE,
KSE) on the stress relaxation curves. Hill’s model for muscle assumes a contractile
muscle component in series with a series elastic component; the combination of
which is in parallel with a parallel elastic component. From Figure 5-7, it can be
seen that stress in the muscle reaches maximum value and gradually decreases
over the course of time even the strain remains unchanged. On increasing the
stiffness of series elastic component (KSE), maximum force in the muscle increases
even though the force on the muscle decays to around same value after 1 second
as seen in Figure 5. However, on increasing the stiffness of parallel elastic
component (KPE), the muscle force decayed with respect to time but with higher
force value at the end of 1 sec (Figure 6). However, the peak muscle force was
same for all the value of KPE.

Figure 5: Effect of KSE on stress relaxation curve

Figure 6: Effect of KPE on stress relaxation curve

 Figure 7: Effect of b on stress relaxation curve

The effect of parameter b (i.e.damping coefficient of contractile component) is

shown in Figure 7. It can be seen that with the increase in b, peak muscle force
increases and the force decays in slower rate than with lower values of b. The
vaule of muscle force at the end of 1 sec for all b were near each other.

4. For the provided experimental data on a specific frog, the Hill model parameters
was obtained by observing the effect of these parameters (b, K PE, KSE) on the
stress relaxation curve (from findings 3). With b = 25, K PE = 100 and KSE = 220,
the curve produced by formula provided in MATLAB script will exactly fit the
experimental data. Hence these values of model parameters accurately predict the
experimental stress relaxation curve. The graph of measured data and
corresponding model predictions is shown in Figure 8.
 Figure 8: Graph of measured data and corresponding model prediction of stress
relaxation curve

Matlab code for obtaining Hill paramets (F0, V0, a)

clc
clear all

d=xlsread('Mystery_FV_data.xls');
F=d(:,2);V=d(:,1);
F0=0.4;V0=1.7;
SF=0;SV=0;SFV=0;SF2=0;SV2=0;SF2V=0;SFV2=0;
for i=1:length(F)
SF=SF+F(i); %calculates summation of force
SV=SV+V(i); %calculates summation of velocity
SFV=SFV+(F(i)*V(i)); %calculates summation of product of force and
velocity
SF2=SF2+(F(i)^2); %calculates summation of square of force
SV2=SV2+(V(i)^2); %calculates summation of square of velocity
SF2V=SF2V+(F(i)^2*V(i)); %calculates summation of product of square of
force and velocity
SFV2=SFV2+(F(i)*V(i)^2); %calculates summation of product of force and
square of velocity
end
%calculation of required a
a=(-(SFV2)-((V0/F0)*(SF2V))+V0*(SFV))/((SV2)+(V0/F0)*(SFV)-V0*(SV)+
(V0/F0)*(SFV)+(V0^2/F0^2)*(SF2)-(V0^2/F0)*(SF)-V0*(SFV)-(V0*(SV))-
(V0^2/F0)*(SF)+(i*V0^2));

%drawing graph
Vfast=[0:0.1:V0];
for i=1:length(Vfast)

Ffast(i) = ( a*V0 - a*Vfast(i)) / (Vfast(i)+a*(V0/F0)); %Calculate Force

velocity curve

end
plot(Vfast,Ffast,'LineWidth',2);
xlabel('Muscle Velocity (length/sec)'); ylabel('Muscle Force (N/mm2)')