Biomechanical knowledge is the fundamental basis for the computation of processes inside (in vivo) and outside (in vitro) of living organisms. The lecture especially concerns soft biological tissues such as intervertebral discs. Hard biological tissues such as bones can be described as a special case of soft tissues. In case of soft tissues, the solid deformation and pore-fluid flow of the complete system consisting of the solid skeleton matrix of proteoglycans (aggrecan) and collagen fibres and an interstitial fluid of pore water and dissolved matter (e. g., NaCl) has to be handled. In addition, swelling and shrinking processes have to be described. In particular, the lecture offers the following content:

• Motivation and introduction to the problem
• Continuum mechanics of coupled systems
• Modelling of soft biological tissues (finite viscoelasticity)
• Consideration of transport processes (fluid flow, diffusion of chemically active matter)
• Consideration of electro-chemical equations (electro-neutrality, 1st Maxwell equation, Donnan equilibrium, van't Hoff osmosis)
• Weak form of the governing set of coupled equations
• Basic structure of the Finite Element Method of coupled systems