The Biomechanics of the

Achilles Tendon

Bill Gov
861062431
Bien 110 Mechanics of the human body
Introduction
The Achilles tendon is used every day by everyone who can use their leg. It
is used to walk, run and basically anything that involves movement of the foot up
and down. In order to allow us to do these movements, the Achilles tendon has to
be able to hold three to twelve times of their owners weight.
The Achilles tendon is one of the thickest and strongest tendons in the
human body and is located behind the calf starting the middle and extends down
the heel bone. Contracting the calf muscles causes the Achilles tendon to push the
foot downward allowing for movement such as running and jumping. The Achilles
tendon works closely with the gastrocnemius muscle and soleus muscle
plantarflex. Unlike most tendons the Achilles tendon has no synovial sheath to help
provide blood for then tendon and relies on instead two arteries instead. Blood
vascularity is one of the weakest parts of the tendon. The Achilles tendon is
surrounded by a paratenon composed of soft tissues.
The Achilless tendon is one of the two most frequently injured tendons in
the human body; Achilles tendon injuries often cause lots of constant pain and
sometimes cause disabilities. Most of these injuries result from strenuous activity

such as exercising or sports. Due to the fact that the Achilles tendon is indeed
heavily used especially in sports means that this tendon is under a lot more stress
than other muscles but still has similar properties compared to other tendons.
This report will analyze the biomechanical properties of the Achilles tendon;
specially the breaking point at which the tendon will no longer be able to generate
tension. This will be done by taking a tendon and simulating it being pulled apart
(when the tendon reaches it maximum load). The properties of the material will be
obtained from literature so that the simulation can help give proper results.
Prior methods
On October 2000, Wren, Yerby, Beaupre and Carter tested the strain rate of
the Achilles tendon. They used eleven pairs of Achilles tendon from people
ranging from the ages of thirty-five to eighty years old and all tissue such as the
paratenon was removed from the samples prior to testing. The tendon was secured
to an aluminum fixture by liquid nitrogen cooled freeze clamp and attached to the
top of a PMMA box. Six to ten beads were glued to the tendon to serve as visual
references for the experiment which were recorded by a CCD camera to measure
the displacement of each bead. Stress was defined as Force over Area; force was
measured as the maximum force recorded when the tendon can no longer take
anymore. The area was measure using high frequency ultrasound.

Specific Approach

The Tendon was modeled in COMSOL to depict the forces acted on it and when it
would fail to sustain anymore loads. I kept the bottom fixed and the sides free and
out the load on the top.
Results and Discussion
The 3D graphs shows us how the tendon will deform and break at a strain of
approximately ~40 MPa when the cross sectional area is equal to ~ 130 mm 2. The
higher the surface area the higher the stress needed to break the tendon.

References
1. Tishya A.L. Wren, Scott A. Yerby, Gary S. Beaupre, Dennis R. Carter.
Mechanical properties of the human Achilles tendon. Elsevier.com N.p.
Web 16 October 2000
2. Gladius Lewis, Kevin M. Shaw. Modeling the tensile behavior of human
Achilles tendon Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, 7(1997), page 231244 17 November 1997
3. Constantinos N. Magnaris, Marco V. Narici, Louis C. Almekinders, Nicola
Mafulli. Biomechanics of the Achilles tendon PubMed . Web 2008
4. Amit Gefen. Stress analysis of the standing foot following surgical fascia
release Journal of Biomechanics. 35 (2002). Page 629-637 28 November
2001.
5. M. KongsGaard, P. Aagaard, M. Kjaer, S.P. Magnusson. Structural Achilles
tendon properties in athletes subjected to different exercise modes and in
Achilles tendon rupture patients. Journal of Applied Physiology. 99 (2005)
1965-1971 1 November 2010
6. Tishya A.A. Wren, Derek P. Lindsey, Gary S. Beaupre, Dennis R, Carter.
Effects of Creep and Cyclic Loading on the Mechanical Properties and
Failure of Human Achilles Tendon. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 31
(2003) 9 September 2002.