02 Fakultät Bau- und Umweltingenieurwissenschaften
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/handle/11682/3
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Item Open Access Microbial biostabilization in fine sediments(2022) Gerbersdorf, Sabine Ulrike; Wieprecht, Silke (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)Microbial biostabilization has increasingly received attention over the last years due to its significance for the dynamics of fine sediments in fluvial and coastal systems with implications for ecology, economy and human-health. This habilitation thesis highlights the contributions of the applicant and her team to this multi-disciplinary research area and is based on eight core publications that are presented in seven chapters. First, the topic of biofilm and biostabilization is introduced and second, the materials and methods applied are presented before own research findings are discussed. To start with, the stabilization potential of heterotrophic bacterial assemblages has been emphasised as well as the adhesive properties of the protein moieties within the EPS (extracellular polymeric substances) that are more significant than previously thought. Furthermore, the engineering potential of estuarine prokaryotic and eukaryotic assemblages has been studied separately and combined to reveal the effective cooperation of mixed biofilm that resulted in highest substratum stabilization although the effects were not clearly synergistic (=more than additive). The significance of biostabilization could be evidenced as well for freshwaters where highest adhesive capacity and sediment stability occurred during spring. Microbial community composition differed accordingly to result in mechanically highly diverse biofilm. Moreover, the importance of two of the most influential abiotic conditions, light intensity and hydrodynamics, was shown for biofilm growth, species composition and functionality - here biostabilization. In order to test adhesive properties at the relevant mesoscale (mm-cm) but non-destructively and highly sensitive, MagPI (Magnetic Particle Induction) has been applied. The last chapter concerns technical aspects to further improve its performance while demonstrating the impact of material and geometry and the importance of both, magnetic field strength and field gradient for the physics of the MagPI approach.Item Open Access Long-term lumped projections of groundwater balances in the face of limited data(Stuttgart : Eigenverlag des Instituts für Wasser- und Umweltsystemmodellierung der Universität Stuttgart, 2024) Ejaz, Fahad; Nowak, Wolfgang (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)Item Open Access Bedload transport estimation in mountainous intermittent rivers and streams(Stuttgart : Eigenverlag des Instituts für Wasser- und Umweltsystemmodellierung der Universität Stuttgart, 2023) Sadid, Najibullah; Wieprecht, Silke (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)Rivers and streams with the flow, sediment, and habitat seasonality are termed as intermittent rivers and streams (IRS). IRS are the main water bodies in arid and semi-arid regions of the world but are also found in the temperate and humid environment, where they are particularly draining headwater streams. Thus, a large part of headwater streams in the mountainous regions behave as intermittent water bodies, where the steep channel slope and a wide variety of sediment sizes add to their hydrosedimentological complexity. Bedload transport as an important sedimentological characteristic of mountainous IRS and essential for planning sediment management strategies, is far from being well understood. Often the knowledge of lowland perennial rivers is adapted to steep IRS, which may lead to an overestimation of bedload transport mainly due to the overestimation of near-bed flow characteristics. Despite the development of numerous methods for modifying near-bed flow parameters for steep IRS such as Double-averaging of Navier-Stokes equation and flow resistance methods modifications for steep IRS, their application is limited to small domains and laboratory conditions. In this research, the flow resistance, main determinant of near-bed flow characteristic is estimated using a regime channel approach. In this approach, the flow resistance is estimated on reach-scale based on the channel’s regime dimension, slope and bankfull discharge assuming an IRS is in regime state (equilibrium condition). A channel’s regime state represents a long-term average characteristic of a river and does not significantly change over time. A channel reach of a constant slope develops a certain flow resistance during its regime state development to resist the change imposed by bankfull discharge and maintain a specific regime geometry, slope, and sediment grain size. 2D- hydromorphological computer simulations are employed to simulate the development of channel regime state for several cases of initial geometries, slopes, and grain sizes by steering the flow resistance. This modifies the riverbed shear stress by the ratio of total flow resistance to grain resistance also known as relative flow resistance µ in order to account for flow energy dissipation on resistance sources such as macro-roughness elements (MRE), and bedforms. Alternatively, two cases of MRE as a main flow resistance inducer is built as non-erodible trapezoidal shapes (i) randomly distributed over the channel bed, and (ii) arranged in cascade bedforms are used in regime channel simulations. MRE protects the channel by reducing the exposed riverbed to erosion and changing the flow characteristics in their vicinity. Regime channel simulations are performed on artificial channels of initial slopes between 0.0% to 10% and initial dimensions of 5.5 m x 200 m and 16.5 m x 200 m resembling a fixed (laboratory) and an extended-width (natural wide channel) condition. Three channel slope combination cases representing a natural channel reach which can be composed of one or more constant slope stretch are also studied beside single slope channels. Steady state simulations are performed for six sediment grain size (GSD) sets, which cover a wide spectrum of naturally occurring sediment sizes. The simulation results show a power-law relationship between µ and regime channel slopes for all channel dimensions, reach combinations, GSD, initial slopes and with (R1) and without sediment feeding (R). The increase in relative flow resistance (µ) with regime channel slope is well reproduced in form of bedforms. Regime channels developed step-pool to cascade bedforms for steep slopes and plane- to riffle bed for gentle slopes channels. The relationship between µ and regime slope derived using regime channel simulation approach exhibits good agreement with some field measurement of flow resistance for mountainous rivers and streams. The approach is applied on two IRS case studies with observed data in Kabul River basin, Afghanistan to estimate bedload transport. The relative flow resistance resulted from models calibration showed good agreement with those derived from test channels regime development simulation. The outcome of channel regime simulation with presence of MRE as geometrical shapes produced a logarithmic-law with a horizontal asymptote relationship between MRE concentrations and channel regime slopes. Similar results are also reported from flume experiments that the ratio of drag to total shear stress increases rapidly when the MRE are sufficiently distant. Regime channels develop micro-channels around MRE, where the bulk of bedload transport occur. For MRE arrangements as cascades, the results show a power-law relationship between channel regime slope and step-pool dimensions λ = LD/DB. The results obtained are in good agreement with field measurement of naturally occurring and artificially built λ relationship with SR. Future studies can further enrich the validation of this approach by applying it to other study sites. Present modelling tools have their limitations when dealing with strong geometries which is often the case for mountain rivers, therefore, improvement in modelling techniques is required to flexibly deal with abrupt changes in riverbed geometry for instance when implementing MRE as main flow resistance inducer.Item Open Access Experimental multi-scale characterization using micro X-ray computed tomography(Stuttgart : Institute of Applied Mechanics, 2023) Ruf, Matthias; Steeb, Holger (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)The effective mechanical and hydro-mechanical behavior of porous media, granular solids, and related materials with complex morphologies is intimately linked to their internal microstructure on the pore/grain scale. For microstructural characterization, transmission micro X-Ray Computed Tomography (µXRCT) has emerged as a crucial three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique that can provide structural information from the micrometer to centimeter scale. Due to its non-destructive nature, it can be excellently combined with time-dependent investigations, either ex situ or in situ. In particular, the possibility of coupling mechanical or hydro-mechanical characterization with µXRCT-based 3D imaging in situ allows many physical phenomena to be studied in more detail and consequently understood more comprehensively. For example, the microstructure evolution can be observed under various controlled boundary conditions and linked to measured effective quantities. New insights and improved understanding can ultimately positively influence modeling approaches. In order to be able to perform such multi-scale studies, a modular, open, and versatile lab-based µXRCT system was developed within the scope of this work. It provides a spatial resolution of down to less than 10 µm. The developed system has an integrated universal testing machine that enables in situ compressive, tensile, and torsional studies as well as their combinations, parallel or sequential. Furthermore, hydro-mechanical coupled phenomena can be investigated using appropriate equipment, such as triaxial flow cells. Thanks to the open and modular concept, the developed system can be used in the future for a wide variety of multiphysics research questions and can be considered as an open experimental platform. Employing the established system, various multi-scale phenomena from different material classes are motivated and partly investigated in more detail within this work. For this purpose, classical experimental characterization methods are combined with µXRCT-based 3D imaging ex situ as well as in situ. Among others, 3D imaging is combined with ultrasound wave propagation measurements to investigate the influence of artificially generated crack networks in Carrara marble by different thermal treatment protocols. Load-sequence effects are demonstrated on an open-cell foam sample. An in situ workflow is shown to investigate the not-well-understood effective stiffness behavior of biphasic monodisperse granular packings of stiff and soft particles of different volume fractions at different stress states. The fracturing of a rock sample in a triaxial flow cell shows possibilities of application in the context of fracture mechanics. All resulting data sets, including metadata, are available via the Data Repository of the University of Stuttgart (DaRUS).Item Open Access Technical note: Space-time statistical quality control of extreme precipitation observations(2022) El Hachem, Abbas; Seidel, Jochen; Imbery, Florian; Junghänel, Thomas; Bárdossy, AndrásInformation about precipitation extremes is of vital importance for many hydrological planning and design purposes. However, due to various sources of error, some of the observed extremes may be inaccurate or false. The purpose of this investigation is to present quality control of observed extremes using space–time statistical methods. To cope with the highly skewed rainfall distribution, a Box–Cox transformation with a suitable parameter was used. The value at the location of a potential outlier is estimated using the surrounding stations and the calculated spatial variogram and compared to the suspicious observation. If the difference exceeds the threshold of the test, the value is flagged as a possible outlier. The same procedure is repeated for different temporal aggregations in order to avoid singularities caused by convection. Detected outliers are subsequently compared to the corresponding radar and discharge observations, and finally, implausible extremes are removed. The procedure is demonstrated using observations of sub-daily and daily temporal resolution in Germany.Item Open Access The role of retardation, attachment and detachment processes during microbial coal-bed methane production after organic amendment(2020) Emmert, Simon; Davis, Katherine; Gerlach, Robin; Class, HolgerMicrobially enhanced coal-bed methane could allow for a more sustainable method of harvesting methane from un-mineable coaldbeds. The model presented here is based on a previously validated batch model; however, this model system is based on upflow reactor columns compared to previous experiments and now includes flow, transport and reactions of amendment as well as intermediate products. The model implements filtration and retardation effects, biofilm decay, and attachment and detachment processes of microbial cells due to shear stress. The model provides additional insights into processes that cannot be easily observed in experiments. This study improves the understanding of complex and strongly interacting processes involved in microbially enhanced coal-bed methane production and provides a powerful tool able to model the entire process of enhancing methane production and transport during microbial stimulation.Item Open Access Development of efficient multiscale multiphysics models accounting for reversible flow at various subsurface energy storage sites(Stuttgart : Eigenverlag des Instituts für Wasser- und Umweltsystemmodellierung der Universität Stuttgart, 2021) Becker, Beatrix; Helmig, Rainer (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)Energy storage is an essential component of future energy systems with a large share of renewable energy. Apart from pumped hydro storage, large scale energy storage is mainly provided by underground energy storage systems. In this thesis we focus on chemical subsurface storage, i.e., the storage of synthetic hydrogen or synthetic natural gas in porous formations. To improve understanding of the complex and coupled processes in the underground and enable planning and risk assessment of subsurface energy storage, efficient, consistent and adequate numerical models for multiphase flow and transport are required. Simulating underground energy storage requires large domains, including local features such as fault zones and a representation of the transient saline front, and simulation times spanning the whole time of plant operation and beyond. In addition, often a large number of simulation runs need to be conducted to quantify parameter uncertainty, and efficient models are needed for data assimilation as well. Therefore, a reduction of model complexity and thus computing effort is required. Numerous simplified models that require less computational resources have been developed. In this thesis we focus on a group of multiscale models which use vertically integrated equations and implicitly include fine-scale information along the vertical direction that is reconstructed assuming vertical equilibrium (VE). Classical VE models are restricted to situations where vertical equilibrium is valid in the whole domain during most of the simulated time. This may not be the case for underground energy storage, where simulated times may be too short and locally a high degree of accuracy and complexity may be required, e.g., around the area where gas is extracted for the purpose of energy production. The three core chapters of this thesis present solutions to adapt VE models for the simulation of underground energy storage, with increasing complexity.Item Open Access Mikrobiologischer Abbau verzweigter kurzkettiger Aliphaten am Beispiel Methylpropen(2023) Helbich, Steffen; Engesser, Karl-Heinrich (Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil.)Die Stämme IBE100 und IBE200 wurden aus Belebtschlamm einer Kläranlage mit Methylpropen (MP) als alleinige Kohlenstoff- und Energiequelle isoliert. Mittels Vergleich der 16S rRNA sowie hsp65 Gensequenzabschnitte und Genom-basierter Taxonomie wurden die Stämme IBE100 und IBE200 den Spezies Mycolicibacterium gadium und Mycobacterium gordonae zugeordnet. Diese obligat aeroben Bakterien sind Oxidase- und Katalase-positiv, säurefest, nicht motil und bilden gelb-pigmentierte, kreisförmige, flache Kolonien aus. Aufgrund der wachsartigen Beschaffenheit der Zellen wurden Flüssigkulturen mit dem Detergenz Triton X-100 versetzt, um ein starkes Verklumpen zu vermeiden. Neben dem Isolationssubstrat Methylpropen (IBE100: µ = 0,018 h-1 und IBE200: µ = 0,025 h-1) unterscheiden sich die Stämme in der Nutzung der Substrate, die als alleinige Kohlenstoff- und Energiequellen verwendet werden können. Stamm IBE100 ist in der Lage, auf den vermuteten Metaboliten von MP, 1,2-Epoxy-2-methylpropan, 2-Methylpropan-1,2-diol, 2 Hydroxyisobuttersäure, 3-Hydroxybuttersäure sowie Glucose, Fructose und Vollmedien (LB, NB, TB) zu wachsen, Stamm IBE200 hingegen nicht. Strukturanaloga von MP und seinen Metaboliten (verzweigte kurzkettige Alkene, Epoxide, vicinale Diole), zyklische aliphatische Verbindungen und Aromaten induzierten bei beiden Stämmen kein Wachstum. Die cometabolische subterminale Oxidation von n-Butan durch dieselbe Monooxygenase, die MP oxidiert, wurde ebenso nachgewiesen wie ihre Induzierbarkeit durch MP und die Indigobildung aus Indol. Eine am Abbauweg von MP beteiligte Alkohol-Dehydrogenase, welche die Oxidation von 2 Methylpropan-1,2-diol katalysiert, ist nicht homolog zu beschriebenen Enzymen gleicher Funktion, die in Abbauwegen von tert-Butanol und 2-Methylpropan-1,2-diol vorkommen. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Dehydrogenase im Zellextrakt NADP gegenüber NAD bevorzugt. Aus der Sequenzierung des Gesamtgenoms, einer differenziellen Expressionsanalyse und einem Peptidmassen Fingerprint wurde ein Abbauweg für Methylpropen abgeleitet. Die identifizierten Schlüsselgene codieren für eine lösliche 4-Komponenten-di-Eisen-Monooxygenase mit Epoxidase-Aktivität, eine Epoxid-Hydrolase und eine 2 Hydroxyisobutyryl-CoA-Mutase. Die Tertiärstrukturen dieser Enzyme wurden modelliert. In beiden Stämmen sind die beteiligten Gene in Clustern von 61,0 bzw. 58,5 kbp in einer erstaunlich hoch konservierten Operonstruktur angeordnet. Diese Cluster enthalten auch die Gene, die für Teile des aeroben Synthesewegs von Adenosylcobalamin codieren, einem Vitamin, das für die von der Mutase katalysierte Kohlenstoffumlagerungsreaktion erforderlich ist. Eine Konvergenz mit dem tert-Butanol-Abbauweg wurde ersichtlich, jedoch konnte der Alkohol selbst aufgrund des Fehlens der erforderlichen spezifischen Oxygenase nicht als Kohlenstoffquelle genutzt werden. Dies ist der erste Nachweis eines Abbauweges für MP auf genetischer Ebene (Helbich et al. 2023), der bisher rein auf Transformationsanalysen mit vermuteten Metaboliten beruht, die aus MTBE-Abbauexperimenten postuliert wurden. Die für die Epoxidierung von MP verantwortliche Monooxygenase wurde als Mitglied der Gruppe 2 der löslichen Monooxygenasen des Aromaten-/Alken-/Isopren-Typs identifiziert, die aus einer Oxygenase-α-Untereinheit IbeA, einer γ-Untereinheit IbeB, einem Ferredoxin vom Rieske-Typ IbeC, einem Kopplungsprotein IbeD, einer β-Untereinheit IbeE und einer flavinhaltigen NAD(P)H-Reduktase IbeF besteht. Die Tertiärstruktur der α-Untereinheit IbeA wurde modelliert und mit ihrer nächsten Verwandten, der Isopren-Monooxygenase aus Rhodococcus sp. AD45, verglichen. Die Geometrien des vorhergesagten aktiven Zentrums und der Substrattunnel lassen auf eine gewisse sterische Einschränkung bei der Substratverwertung schließen. Die Monooxygenase wurde in dem n-Alkan abbauenden Mycobacterium fluoranthenivorans BUT6 mit pST-K, einem E. coli-Mycobacterium-Shuttle- und Expressionsvektor, heterolog exprimiert. Für die Ausbildung einer katalytischen Aktivität war eine Inkubationstemperatur von ~20 °C erforderlich. Die Monooxygenase war trotz der gescheiterten Expression der Reduktase-Komponente IsoF aktiv. Die Umwandlung von MP in 1,2-Epoxy-2-methylpropan in ruhenden Zellen wurde kolorimetrisch mit dem NBP-Assay nachgewiesen (KM = 271 mM, vmax = 46 mM ⋅ h-1).Item Open Access The benefit of muscle-actuated systems : internal mechanics, optimization and learning(Stuttgart : Institut für Modellierung und Simulation Biomechanischer Systeme, Computational Biophysics and Biorobotics, 2023) Wochner, Isabell; Schmitt, Syn (Prof. Dr.)We are facing the challenge of an over-aging and overweight society. This leads to an increasing number of movement disorders and causes the loss of mobility and independence. To address this pressing issue, we need to develop new rehabilitation techniques and design innovative assistive devices. Achieving this goal requires a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanics that control muscle-actuated motion. However, despite extensive studies, the neural control of muscle-actuated motion remains poorly understood. While experiments are valuable and necessary tools to further our understanding, they are often limited by ethical and practical constraints. Therefore, simulating muscle-actuated motion has become increasingly important for testing hypotheses and bridge this knowledge gap. In silico, we can establish cause-effect relationships that are experimentally difficult or even impossible to measure. By changing morphological aspects of the underlying musculoskeletal structure or the neural control strategy itself, simulations are crucial in the quest for a deeper understanding of muscle-actuated motion. The insights gained from these simulations paves the way to develop new rehabilitation techniques, enhance pre-surgical planning, design better assistive devices and improve the performance of current robots. The primary objective of this dissertation is to study the intricate interplay between musculoskeletal dynamics, neural controller and the environment. To achieve this goal, a simulation framework has been developed as part of this thesis, enabling the modeling and control of muscle-actuated motion using both model-based and learning-based methods. By utilizing this framework, musculoskeletal models of the arm, head-neck complex and a simplified whole-body model are investigated in conjunction with various concepts of motor control. The main research questions of this thesis are therefore: 1. How does the neural control strategy select muscle activation patterns to generate the desired movement, and can we use this knowledge to design better assistive devices? 2. How does the musculoskeletal dynamics facilitate the neural control strategy in accomplishing this task of generating desired movements? To address these research questions, this thesis comprises a total of five journal and conference articles. More specifically, contributions I-III of this thesis focus on addressing the first research question which aims to understand how voluntary and reflexive movements can be predicted. First, we investigate various optimality principles using a musculoskeletal arm model to predict point-to-manifold reaching tasks. By using predictive simulations, we demonstrate how the arm would move towards a goal if, for example, our neural control strategy would minimize energy consumption. The main finding of this contribution shows that it is essential to include muscle dynamics and consider tasks with more openly defined targets to draw accurate conclusions about motor control. Through our analysis, we show that a combination of mechanical work, jerk and neuronal stimulation effort best predicts point-reaching when compared to human experiments. Second, we propose a novel method to optimize the design of exoskeleton power units taking into account the load cycle of predicted human movements. To achieve this goal, we employ a forward dynamic simulation of a generic musculoskeletal arm model, which is first scaled to represent different individuals. Next, we predict individual human motions and employ the predicted human torques to scale the electrical power units employing a novel scalability model. By considering the individual user needs and task demands, our approach achieves a lighter and more efficient design. In conclusion, our framework demonstrates the potential to improve the design of individual assistive devices. The third contribution focuses on predicting reflexive movements in response to sudden perturbations of the head-neck complex. To achieve this, we conducted experiments in which volunteers were placed on a table while supporting their heads with a trapdoor. This trapdoor was then suddenly released leading to a downward movement of the head until the reflexive reaction of the muscles stops the head from falling. We analyzed the results of these experiments, presenting characteristic parameters and highlighting differences between separate age and gender groups. Using this data, we also set up benchmark validations for a musculoskeletal head-neck model, including reflex control strategies. Our main findings are that there are large individual differences in reflexive responses between participants and that the perturbation direction significantly affects the reflexive response. Furthermore, we show that this data can be used as a benchmark test to validate musculoskeletal models and different muscle control strategies. While the first three contributions focus on the research question (1), contributions IV-V focus on (2) whether and how the musculoskeletal dynamics facilitate the learning and control task of various movements. We utilize a recently introduced information-theoretic approach called control effort to quantify the minimally required information to perform specific movements. By applying this concept, we can for example quantify how much biological muscles reduce the neuronal information load compared to technical DC-motors. We present a novel optimization algorithm to find this control effort and apply it to point-reaching and walking tasks. The main finding of this contribution is that the musculoskeletal dynamics reduce the control effort required for these movements compared to torque-driven systems. Finally, we hypothesize that the highly nonlinear muscle dynamics not only facilitate the control task but also provide inherent stability that is beneficial for learning from scratch. To test this, we employed various learning strategies for multiple anthropomorphic tasks, including point-reaching, ball-hitting, hopping, and squatting. The results of this investigation demonstrate that using muscle-like actuators improves the data-efficiency of the learning tasks. Additionally, including the muscle dynamics improves the robustness towards hyperparameters and allows for a better generalization towards unknown and unlearned perturbations. In summary, this thesis enhances existing methods to control and learn muscle-actuated motion, quantifies the control effort needed to perform certain movements and demonstrates that the inherent stability of the muscle dynamics facilitates the learning task. The models, control strategies, and experimental data presented in this work aid researchers in science and industry to improve their predictions in various fields such as neuroscience, ergonomics, rehabilitation, passive safety systems, and robotics. This allows us to reverse-engineer how we as humans control movement, uncovering the complex relationship between musculoskeletal dynamics and neural controller.Item Open Access Biophysical validity of reduced soft tissue modelling in neuro-musculoskeletal simulations(Stuttgart : Institut für Modellierung und Simulation Biomechanischer Systeme, Computational Biophysics and Biorobotics, 2024) Hammer, Maria; Schmitt, Syn (Prof. Dr. rer. nat.)In the past decades, neuro-musculoskeletal simulations have become a key technology in biomechanical research, and are increasingly utilised to support clinical decision-making processes, evaluate occupational safety, and facilitate the design of assistive devices. The importance of precise and physiologically valid simulations cannot be emphasised enough across all application fields. However, achieving this accuracy becomes particularly challenging when developing reduced descriptions of soft tissue compartments, where the degrees of freedom and structural complexity are condensed into predominantly phenomenological or homogenised sub-models. Furthermore, it necessitates a deep understanding of the dynamic interplay among different soft tissue elements in the body, which, in turn, requires a high level of reliability and confidence in the employed underlying model. In order to ensure the usefulness of the models, it is crucial to strike a balance between the level of detail and the limitations arising from simplifications. This involves considering various possibilities to validate the mechanical behaviour of each sub-model individually and the overall model as a whole. The scientific aim of this dissertation is to investigate the load sharing of soft tissue compartments at the example of the human lumbar spine during active motions by using predictive simulations. To set the basis for this kind of research, the main objective is to create, calibrate, verify and validate a detailed neuro-musculoskeletal model, which gives rise to three research questions that guide this thesis: (1) How can (and should) common approaches for reduced single tissue models be improved to increase the level of biomechanical validity and physical verification of both the sub-models themselves, and the multibody models composed of them? (2) Which sub-structures are of biomechanical relevance for estimating internal forces and torques on a full-body scale? (3) Which validation methods need to be considered during the development of a physiological spine model, and how can the corresponding simulation results be assessed? This thesis encompasses five journal articles studies, contributing to the different aspects of the three research questions. More precisely, Contribution I addresses research questions (1) and (3) regarding how to enhance biomechanical validity of muscle routing in multibody models by introducing a novel algorithm for redirecting muscle paths. With this method, the physiological accuracy of muscle length and moment arm representations within Hill-type models can be refined, particularly for muscles spanning multiple joints with multiple degrees of freedom. Contribution II focuses on the intuitive assessment of the relative motion between two vertebral bodies. Using a newly developed method for graphical representation of finite helical axes, which fully encapsulates the information about rotation and translation of the relative motion between two vertebral bodies, extensive data sets were effectively presented through clustering methods. This work, thereby, contributes to research question (3) since the finite helical axis can serve as measure for model validation. Contribution III presents a comprehensive simulation study and introduces a detailed generic model of the human thoracolumbar spine. This generic model includes several hundred muscle and ligament strands, along with intervertebral joints modelled as free joints constrained only by intervertebral discs. Notably, the model is able to balance gravity in an upright position without additional constraints and with only a physiologically low level of muscle stimulation. The description of model development and validation significantly contributes to research question (3). Moreover, the analysis of load sharing among the three soft tissue sub-structures, namely ligaments, muscles, and intervertebral discs, revealed an almost equal distribution of bending moment during forward flexion, offering insights for research question (2). Additionally, this paper introduces a workflow for geometric individualisation of the generic model based on landmark data obtained from computed-tomography scans. The investigation of subject-specific forces and torques exhibits significant inter- and intrapersonal differences in the lumbar load distribution. These findings deepen the biomechanical understanding of complex interactions within the spine. Contribution IV explores the influence of neglecting entire passive tissue groups, precisely intervertebral discs and ligaments, which is common practice in many spine models. Using an inverse dynamic approach, this study contributes to research questions (2) and (3) by providing cross-platform validation. The examination of kinematic models that exclude ligament and intervertebral disc tissues reveals a tendency for highly overestimated muscle forces. These findings highlight the importance of considering all relevant soft tissue structures in computational models to ensure accurate muscle force estimations. Lastly, the Contribution V directly addresses research question (1) by tackling the challenge of incorporating energy conservation in surrogate models representing the elastic mechanical responses of intervertebral discs. It introduces a novel approach that surpasses currently used elastic models in terms of precision, coupling of different degrees of freedom, and nonlinear behaviour. This advancement increases the accuracy and physical validity while also enabling the individualisation of the mechanical behaviour of subject- and level-specific intervertebral disc geometry. In order to achieve the aforementioned aims and answer the research questions, a multibody simulation framework has been extended by the novel algorithms developed within the scope of this thesis. These algorithms improve the geometric quality of soft tissue representations and refine accuracy of predicted internal forces and torques while preserving basic physical principles. Furthermore, a pre-processor typically used to scale population-based models has been modified to serve two additional purposes. On the one hand, the existing code was advanced to create geometrically individualised models based on landmark positions derived from computed-tomography scans. On the other hand, the functionality to generate models compatible with another widely used multibody simulation tool was included. Having identical models facilitates cross-platform validation, and allows to test muscle, ligament and intervertebral disc sub-models, and whole thoracolumbar spine models in different scenarios. In summary, this thesis enhances existing methods and provides new approaches to create more accurate neuro-musculoskeletal models capable of predicting internal forces and kinematics. The detailed spine model developed during this thesis serves as a valuable foundation for future investigations, including subject-specific, non-invasive implant testing, and exploration of the rotation axes in complex movements and post-surgical scenarios.