Multiscale mechanics of biological, bioinspired, and biomedical materials

Abstract

Mechanical property measurement protocols have their origins in metallurgy as well as in mechanical and civil engineering-metals being the first materials used on a broad industrial scale. Recent decades have evidenced growing interest in applying these protocols to biological materials or materials mimicking or replacing biological tissue. However, the mechanical properties of biological materials have been found to be highly variable and seemingly hard to capture by traditional protocols. A slow, emerging thought is that perhaps the mechanical theories underlying the testing protocols emanating from the metals field might not be fully applicable to the highly complex, hierarchically organized biological materials and might need further development. The articles in this issue highlight different and complementary, yet also interdependent, approaches to the challenge of extending theoretical and applied mechanics to the level needed for satisfying and reliably capturing the properties of biological materials. This issue also encompasses corresponding, far-reaching consequences for measurement techniques and evaluation protocols aimed at the determination of mechanical protocols.