Special Issue on Injury and Damage Mechanics for Biological Structures

Injuries to tissues and organs in the civilian world have been a major concern due to increased awareness on health and wellness spurred by advances in medical diagnostics and treatment protocols. In addition, the prevalent use of high energy explosives in modern military conflicts has led to increased injuries and lethality not only in military personnel but also in civilian lives. As a consequence of the higher risk activities in every sphere of human life, understanding and mitigating injuries to the body and organs have become a major priority across military and civilian contexts.This Special Issue includes original research and review articles in the area of Injury and Damage Mechanics for Biological Structures. The focus of the issue has been on studying the effect of various internal and external agents (e.g., trauma, sports, accidents, aging, disease, ballistics, and blasts) that can cause injuries and damage to tissues utilizing analytical models, numerical simulations, experimental methods, imaging-based analysis, artificial intelligence, and data science approaches, as well as clinical and preclinical approaches. This issue is intended to be a collection of the latest research and updates in injury and damage to biological structures, and their prediction, mitigation, and protection.Detailed and thoughtful experimental work, using preclinical subjects as well as surrogate physical models, is essential for both supporting and validating computational models to predict injury and damage to tissues and organs, as well as defining criteria to map insult to injury. A paper in this issue proposes a framework integrating blast exposure (overpressure, blunt impact, and ballistic impact) with human injury and impairment, and, when possible, linking to clinical prognosis and treatment. Such a framework can be used to map insult to injury and recovery, both with and without protective equipment. Five papers address tissue and organ injury mechanisms under blunt and ballistic threats. The two papers on tympanic membrane injury due to blast exposure present a novel approach to characterize the membrane dynamic response and damage biomechanics. The papers on spine modeling provide new angles on understanding the kinematics of the human cervical spine and extending its injury analysis to address personalized care. An image processing based micromechanical model depicts age-related volume shrinkage in brain white matter. The other two papers apply computational modeling and simulation for design assessment of military protective gear and spacesuits and predict their performance.Based on the state of the art in blast, ballistics, and blunt trauma injuries and our current state of knowledge, the field is utilizing the latest advances in sensors and instrumentation, and analytical techniques to determine the extent of injury and recovery over time. Simultaneously, the advanced supercomputers are being used to create high resolution models for computational fluids analysis and structural analysis of the human body, as well as tissues and organs. However, important gaps remain. Clinical validation of injury predictions is still limited, especially for organs beyond the brain. Most models lack integration with clinical data and do not capture variability across age, sex, or health status. Experimental protocols and injury metrics are not consistently standardized. Complex multi-organ responses, such as those in blast or space environments, are poorly represented. Real-time sensing for injury detection and prevention remains underutilized in the commercial domain, limiting the utility of wearable systems outside research settings.Looking ahead, addressing these gaps will require expanding the focus beyond material properties toward broader questions of public health, clinical relevance, and real-world application. Injury biomechanics is increasingly influencing the design of wearable sensors, real-time diagnostics, and personalized protection strategies. As space travel and long duration missions to destinations like Mars become viable, new risks to organs such as the heart, lungs, and spine will demand models that account for altered gravity, radiation, and physiological change. Advances in wearable technology also offer the potential for continuous monitoring across populations, enabling early detection and prevention in both high risk and everyday environments. Computational modeling and predictive tools will need to keep up with these advances in monitoring to address both acute and chronic injury and recovery to normal life period. The predictive tools augmented by artificial intelligence and machine learning have an opportunity to integrate clinical prognosis and treatment to comprehensively address the effects of injury to tissues and organs. Bridging experimental, computational, and clinical domains will be essential for translating injury biomechanics into meaningful benefits for individuals and society.