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Procedia
Engineering
ProcediaEngineering
Procedia Engineering 200 (2009)3211–3215
(2010) 000–000

www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

8th Conference of the International Sports Engineering Association (ISEA)

Prediction of energy efficient pedal forces in cycling using

musculoskeletal simulation models
Franz Höchtl1,* Harald Böhm2, Veit Senner1
1
Department of Sport Equipment and Materials, TU Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85747 Garching, Germany
2
Behandlungszentrum Aschau GmbH, Bernauer Straße 18, 83229 Aschau i. Chiemgau, Germany
Received 31 January 2010; revised 7 March 2010; accepted 21 March 2010

Abstract

A biomechanical simulation model was developed to analyze energy efficient pedal forces in cycling. With a
genetic optimisation algorithm muscle activation has been optimized in order to minimize metabolic energy
consumption. Results show that the established mechanical definition of the Index of Efficiency is not appropriate to
quantify pedaling technique, because it is not in agreement with metabolic efficiency of the biomechanical system.

c©2010
2009Published
PublishedbybyElsevier Ltd.Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
ElsevierLtd.

Keywords: cycling efficiency, hill type muscle model, genetic optimisation algorithm , multi body system, Index of Efficiency

1. Introduction

To improve the transfer of human power to cycling performance, technical solutions such as elliptic chain rings,
pedal-crank systems with varying lengths or independent crank arms have been developed. Since the effects of these
systems are small [6, 8, 11], the present mechanism with fixed crank length and circular chain rings are most
commonly used in cycling. In addition to optimise the equipment it is also possible to improve the athlete’s
pedalling technique. The task for athlete is hereby to maximize the motive efficiency, defined as the ratio between
propulsive tangential force and the total force applied to the crank shown in Fig. 1.

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-89-289-24-505; fax: +49-89-289-15389.
E-mail address: f.hoechtl@sp.tum.de.

1877-7058 c 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2010.04.134
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F. Höchtl et al. / Procedia Engineering 00 (2010) 000–000

Fig. 1: Tangential and radial forces applied on the right pedal, used for the calculation of Index of Efficiency

For this purpose Davis and Hull [4] developed the Index of Efficiency (IE) to quantify the quality of pedalling
technique.

IE =
∫F tan dϕ
(1)
∫ Ftan + Frad dϕ
2 2

It has been shown that applying optimal oriented forces to the pedal during cycling enhances power output for
comparable load magnitudes [4]. However, studies on groups on high performance and recreational cyclists did not
show any correlation between power output and Index of Efficiency [3, 7]. Therefore, the purpose of this study was
to demonstrate that the above mechanical definition of Index of Efficiency is not in agreement with the metabolic
efficiency of the biomechanical system. In particular we want to show that radial forces, even though not being
effective for propulsion are important to realize efficient transfer of muscle power to cycling performance.

2. Methods

The human body model used in the simulation consists of 7 rigid bodies connected by the hip, knee, and ankle
joints with one rotational degree of freedom in the sagittal plane. Segment masses, moments of inertia, and joint and
center of mass locations were calculated based on regression equations [9]. The model represents a male subject
with body weight and standing height of 78 kg and 183 cm. The mechanical model was driven by 8 Hill-type
muscles [2] for each leg (Gluteus maximus, Illiopsoas, Vastus, Soleus and Tibialis Anterior, Hamstrings, Rectus
Femoris and Gastrocnemius).
The bicycle rider system was implemented in MatLab Simulink/ Simmechanics 3.0. (Mathworks Inc, Natic, US).
Muscle activation for each muscle was defined as a function of crank angle by a set of 8 control nodes per 360°
interpolated with sinusoidal function [2]. This model results in 64 design parameters for optimisation. A genetic
algorithm strategy (MatLab, genetic algorithm and direct search toolbox 2.4) was used to optimize muscle activation
functions in order to minimize the metabolic energy consumption of all muscles. The metabolic energy consumption
was calculated according to [1]. To generate constant cycling movement a few constraints had to be added. The
mean crank frequency should remain with an accepted tolerance of 0.01 rad/min, while the maximum divergence
from the crank frequency target should stay within borders of 0.2 rad/s.
The optimisation was carried out for a driving speed of 35 km/h, which corresponds to a driving resistance of
280 W, at a cadence of 90 U/min. The optimisation evaluated 20 generations of 750 individuals which took about 6
days CPU time on a dual-core 2200 MHz windows PC.
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Fig. 2: Rigid body model with leg muscles and bike rider system.

3. Results

Fig. 3 shows the simulated optimal tangential and radial pedal forces. At the top dead center (TDC at 0° crank
angle) both tangential and radial force are close to zero. With increasing crank angle tangential force rises to a
maximum of 400 N during the downstroke at about 100°. After this maximum the curve decreases until it changes
direction in the bottom dead center (BDC). In the second half rotation the tangential force is always negative with a
minimum of -100 N occurring at about 260°. Since the force is negative it is acting against the direction of
propulsion. From the radial force curve it is obvious that during the whole rotation radial non propulsive pedal
forces are present. The curve characteristic is similar to the tangential force, with a phase shift of about 30° to
greater angle values.

Fig. 3: Tangential and radial pedal forces for minimized metabolic energy consumption
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Fig 4: Pedal force direction and magnitude during crank rotation

Fig. 4 visualises the resulting pedal forces during one rotation. Obviously the forces are mostly vertically
orientated At TDC and BDC the tangential forces are close to zero at the same time considerable radial forces are
dominant. In sector IV pedal forces are even orientated against rotation direction.
Using these calculated pedal forces the IE (Fig. 5) shows rather low values being only 35% for the overall crank
rotation. Only in sector II considerable high values of 90% are reached, while in sector I 34% and in sector IV only
15% of the total pedal force is propulsive.
In sector III 85% of the pedal force retards the crank motion.

Fig. 5: Index of Efficiency for sectors of crank rotation

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4. Conclusion

Considerable radial pedal forces were obtained when muscle activation was optimized for minimal metabolic
energy consumption. Consequently IE results in relatively low values in all sectors - except for sector II. It can be
concluded that the traditional definition of efficiency of motion, which is based on the reduction of radial forces in
all sectors, might not be appropriate to describe pedalling technique properly. Instead it is concluded that for optimal
pedalling technique a certain amount of radial pedal force is needed. Further analysis of muscle mechanics
contribution to sectors’ work distribution will follow to fully understand the biomechanical explanation of our
findings.

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