The complexity of biological tissue presents significant difficulties for constitutive formulations for computational models for impact. The current study presents indentation tests on a volunteer’s upper arm for the non-invasive investigation of passive skeletal muscle tissue mechanical properties. A novel Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique and a custom designed MRI compatible indentor and force sensor were successfully used to record boundary conditions such as geometry, 3D tissue deformation and indentation force non-invasively. These, when combined with inverse finite element analysis (FEA), provide a means to derive parameters for constitutive formulations for human muscle tissue suitable for impact modelling.

The results demonstrate a complex anisotropic strain field arising from relatively simple indentor motion, with regions of tensile strain around the sidewall of the indentor as well as regions of compressive strain below the indentor. Furthermore, although not yet quantified, viscoelasticity and anisotropy of the tissue were qualitatively observed. This data can in the future be combined with FEA to improve the bio-fidelity of constitutive models of human muscle tissue.