01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Citation
Humphrey, J. D., & O'Rourke, S. L. (2025). An Introduction to Biomechanics: Solids and Fluids, Analysis and Design (3rd ed.). Springer.
Chapter Summary
The third edition runs to about 690 pages of chapters in twelve chapters. The publisher describes a consistent approach to formulating and solving problems in the biomechanics of solids and fluids, with brief introductions to the more complex situations that need nonlinear elasticity, elastodynamics, viscoelasticity or fluid-solid interactions. Concepts are motivated by short descriptions of biological, biomechanical and clinical observations and techniques, and the derivations of the fundamental equations are given in full.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The opening chapter (about 40 pages) sets the scene for the book as a whole before the mechanics begins.
Chapter 2: Stress, Strain, and Constitutive Relations
The first technical chapter (about 60 pages) introduces the three ideas on which a continuum treatment rests: stress, strain, and the constitutive relations that connect them.
Chapter 3: Equilibrium, Universal Solutions, Inflation
Chapter 3 (about 60 pages) puts the framework to work on equilibrium, on solutions that hold for many materials, and on inflation.
Chapters 4–5: Extension and Torsion; Beam Bending and Column Buckling
Two chapters of classical solid-mechanics problems: extension and torsion (about 50 pages), then beam bending and column buckling (about 75 pages, the longest of the solids chapters).
Chapter 6: Some Nonlinear Problems
The last solids chapter (about 70 pages) takes up nonlinear problems, the territory that the publisher flags as needing nonlinear elasticity.
Chapters 7–8: Stress, Motion, and Constitutive Relations; Fundamental Balance Relations
The chapter titles now repeat the stress and constitutive-relation pattern with motion added, and the sequence appears to start the fluids half of the book. Chapter 8 (about 50 pages) states the fundamental balance relations.
Chapters 9–10: Some Exact Solutions; Control Volume and Semi-empirical Methods
Chapter 9 (about 70 pages) presents exact solutions; Chapter 10 (about 70 pages) turns to control-volume and semi-empirical methods.
Chapter 11: Coupled Solid–Fluid Problems
A chapter of about 70 pages in which solids and fluids interact, the setting for the coupled problems that the third edition expands.
Chapter 12: Epilogue
A closing chapter of about ten pages.
Key Concepts
Chapters 1–3: Introduction; Stress, Strain, and Constitutive Relations; Equilibrium, Universal Solutions, Inflation
- Stress, strain and constitutive relations: the basic quantities and the material laws that connect them.
- Equilibrium and universal solutions: solutions of equilibrium problems that apply across materials.
- Inflation: a problem class given its own place in Chapter 3.
Chapters 4–6: Extension and Torsion; Beam Bending and Column Buckling; Some Nonlinear Problems
- Extension and torsion: the response of bodies pulled or twisted.
- Beam bending and column buckling: bending and the stability of slender members.
- Nonlinear problems: cases that go beyond linear behaviour.
Chapters 7–11: Stress, Motion, and Constitutive Relations to Coupled Solid–Fluid Problems
- Balance relations: the fundamental laws of Chapter 8.
- Exact solutions and control-volume methods: two kinds of method named in the chapter titles.
- Coupled solid-fluid problems: situations in which both kinds of material interact.
Critical Analysis
Strengths
- One method for solids and fluids. The publisher stresses a consistent approach to formulating and solving problems for both kinds of material, and the chapter titles repeat the stress-and-constitutive-relations pattern for the second half.
- Derivations and worked problems. The publisher cites complete derivations of the fundamental equations, solutions of more than 100 example problems and more than 350 exercises, together with over 300 figures and 200 references.
- Scope suited to a one- or two-semester course. The publisher describes it as well suited to a one- or two-semester introduction.
- Third-edition additions. The edition adds material on complex fluids (non-Newtonian) and solids (nonlinear and anisotropic) behaviour, and on coupled problems for different tissues, together with more homework problems.
- Authors from teaching and from device practice. Humphrey is a professor and former chair of biomedical engineering at Yale, and O'Rourke works at Medtronic on pacemakers and implantable defibrillators.
Limitations
- Mathematically demanding. Full derivations of continuum mechanics call for a solid base in statics, mechanics of materials, multivariable calculus and differential equations.
- Introductions only for advanced topics. Nonlinear elasticity, elastodynamics, viscoelasticity and fluid-solid interactions get brief introductions, so readers needing depth in them must go on to specialist texts.
- Not a book about human movement. The chapter list is continuum mechanics of solids and fluids; musculoskeletal and sport biomechanics sit elsewhere.
Where It Fits in the Course
Humphrey and O'Rourke is the continuum-mechanics core text of the course. Duane Knudson's Fundamentals of Biomechanics is an introduction centred on human movement, and Nihat Özkaya and colleagues' Fundamentals of Biomechanics builds statics, dynamics and deformable-body mechanics from first principles for readers without an engineering background. Ross Ethier and Craig Simmons's Introductory Biomechanics: From Cells to Organisms is a course text for students with an engineering or physical-science background that describes the anatomy and physiology of each topic before the solid and fluid mechanics. Peterson and Bronzino's Biomechanics: Principles and Applications is a comprehensive treatment spanning tissue mechanics and movement analysis, and Y. C. Fung's Biomechanics: Mechanical Properties of Living Tissues is a graduate monograph on the constitutive behaviour of biological materials.
A sensible sequence is Özkaya or Knudson first for those new to mechanics, then Humphrey and O'Rourke for the continuum framework, and Fung afterwards for the experimental constitutive behaviour of tissues.
How to Use This Book
The book suits upper-level undergraduates in biomedical engineering and beginning graduate students. A base in statics, multivariable calculus and differential equations is a sensible preparation.
A practical plan:
- Core: Chapters 2 to 5 for the solids framework, then Chapters 7 to 10 for the fluids parallel.
- Next: Chapter 6 (nonlinear problems) and Chapter 11 (coupled problems), which go beyond the linear and separate treatments.
- Skim or defer: Chapter 1 as orientation and Chapter 12 as a closing look.
The worked examples are the best place to learn the method: try each before reading the solution, and then work a selection of the exercises from every chapter. Check the edition before buying, since the second edition (2015) differs from this third.