journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 41 (2015) 221
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
www.elsevier.com/locate/jmbbm
Editorial It is my pleasure to introduce you to this special issue on Injury Biomechanics which covers a broad selection of papers on a topic that has been my personal focus for nearly 20 years, and which remains an area where significant research is needed to further reduce traumatic injuries from road accidents especially, but also from sports and occupational injuries and protective equipment for military cases. The biomechanics of injury brings researchers together from disciplines including biomechanics, material science, doctors, epidemiologists and design and safety engineers. Many of these researchers meet annually at the Conference of the International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury (see http://www.ircobi.org). One of the important themes at the conference is the mechanics of human tissues and the 2013 conference held in Gothenburg saw a significant number of papers relating to human tissue injury biomechanics. As a result, this special issue of JMBBM was conceived, and most of the papers in this issue follow thematically from the papers presented at the conference. Notwithstanding this, this special issue is of course not a reprint of the conference papers, but rather a selection of significant research advances in the area since the conference. In this special issue, we start with the review by Famaey et al. of our understanding of bridging vein damage during head injury, including a summary of injury criteria, anatomy and material models and parameters. Otténio et al. then focus on the anisotropic deformation behaviour of human skin over a range of rates relevant to injury causation, and this can be used for parameter identification for future constitutive models. A common theme in injury biomechanics relates to the dearth of data at relevant deformation rates. Mattucci and Cronin report on a new method to provide an accurate representation of the average deformation response of cervical spinal ligaments over a range of deformation rates, and this approach has potential to be adopted for other tissues. Bonner et al. move the focus to knee ligaments, and again provide an improved understanding of the deformation behaviour over a range of loading rates relevant to injury cases. Stemper et al. report on the rate dependent failure properties of lumber vertebral bodies and found gender
differences. Untaroiu et al. have taken a similar approach for liver parenchyma. Perz et al. have focused not on material properties, but on geometric properties of ribs, as geometry is clearly a significant factor for injury outcome. They provide insights into finite element model development from medical images, which is standard for developing person specific models. Agnew et al. have also focused on the ribs, but have studied the influence of age, as this is another significant factor for injury outcome, and this work will aid future age-specific finite element modelling. In a similar way, Colter et al. have focused on the mechanical properties of immature eyes, and they have found significant differences between the viscoelastic behaviour of infant and adult vitreous. Post et al. have used a combination of finite element modelling and accident reconstruction to study the strain distributions in the brain for different levels of concussion injury outcome, and this approach is increasingly gaining traction for developing improved head injury criteria. Finally, Payne et al. and Mitchell et al. have proposed silicone-based materials to represent skin, adipose tissue and muscle as mechanical surrogates for sports injury simulations, and this approach holds promise for future protective equipment evaluation. In summary, this special issue covers a broad range of human tissues and topics relevant to advances in injury biomechanics. I hope you will enjoy it, and perhaps we will see you at the next IRCOBI conference in Lyon. It would be a pleasure to meet many of you again there.
Ciaran Simms Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
1751-6161/$ - see front matter & 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2014.11.008
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
www.elsevier.com/locate/jmbbm
Editorial It is my pleasure to introduce you to this special issue on Injury Biomechanics which covers a broad selection of papers on a topic that has been my personal focus for nearly 20 years, and which remains an area where significant research is needed to further reduce traumatic injuries from road accidents especially, but also from sports and occupational injuries and protective equipment for military cases. The biomechanics of injury brings researchers together from disciplines including biomechanics, material science, doctors, epidemiologists and design and safety engineers. Many of these researchers meet annually at the Conference of the International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury (see http://www.ircobi.org). One of the important themes at the conference is the mechanics of human tissues and the 2013 conference held in Gothenburg saw a significant number of papers relating to human tissue injury biomechanics. As a result, this special issue of JMBBM was conceived, and most of the papers in this issue follow thematically from the papers presented at the conference. Notwithstanding this, this special issue is of course not a reprint of the conference papers, but rather a selection of significant research advances in the area since the conference. In this special issue, we start with the review by Famaey et al. of our understanding of bridging vein damage during head injury, including a summary of injury criteria, anatomy and material models and parameters. Otténio et al. then focus on the anisotropic deformation behaviour of human skin over a range of rates relevant to injury causation, and this can be used for parameter identification for future constitutive models. A common theme in injury biomechanics relates to the dearth of data at relevant deformation rates. Mattucci and Cronin report on a new method to provide an accurate representation of the average deformation response of cervical spinal ligaments over a range of deformation rates, and this approach has potential to be adopted for other tissues. Bonner et al. move the focus to knee ligaments, and again provide an improved understanding of the deformation behaviour over a range of loading rates relevant to injury cases. Stemper et al. report on the rate dependent failure properties of lumber vertebral bodies and found gender
differences. Untaroiu et al. have taken a similar approach for liver parenchyma. Perz et al. have focused not on material properties, but on geometric properties of ribs, as geometry is clearly a significant factor for injury outcome. They provide insights into finite element model development from medical images, which is standard for developing person specific models. Agnew et al. have also focused on the ribs, but have studied the influence of age, as this is another significant factor for injury outcome, and this work will aid future age-specific finite element modelling. In a similar way, Colter et al. have focused on the mechanical properties of immature eyes, and they have found significant differences between the viscoelastic behaviour of infant and adult vitreous. Post et al. have used a combination of finite element modelling and accident reconstruction to study the strain distributions in the brain for different levels of concussion injury outcome, and this approach is increasingly gaining traction for developing improved head injury criteria. Finally, Payne et al. and Mitchell et al. have proposed silicone-based materials to represent skin, adipose tissue and muscle as mechanical surrogates for sports injury simulations, and this approach holds promise for future protective equipment evaluation. In summary, this special issue covers a broad range of human tissues and topics relevant to advances in injury biomechanics. I hope you will enjoy it, and perhaps we will see you at the next IRCOBI conference in Lyon. It would be a pleasure to meet many of you again there.
Ciaran Simms Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
1751-6161/$ - see front matter & 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2014.11.008
