ABSTRACT
Shape memory polymers are a special kind of polymers where the so-called glass transition is used to recover the original shape of a structure. The microscopic structure of polymers is formed of long, randomly oriented molecular chains which are linked together at certain points. The information known at the micro level, the number of chain links, the rate of chain breakage or the volume fraction of filler particles, is transferred to the macro level by means of the assumption that the stretch of a chain is equal to the stretch computed on the edge of one tetrahedral element. The chapter focuses on the application of the network concept in the context of muscle modelling and shape memory polymers. The interaction between muscle fibres and the surrounding soft tissue is therefore automatically incorporated.
