Puncture Characterization of Biological and Bio-Inspired Materials

Puncture is ubiquitous in nature, serving functions ranging from predation and protection to feeding and reproduction, and it has inspired extensive research into both the mechanics of natural puncture strategies and their application to materials testing. As a characterization method, puncture integrates principles of fracture mechanics, large-deformation elasticity, and contact phenomena, making it particularly suited to capture the complex failure of biological tissues and bio-inspired materials. Over the past few decades, studies have applied puncture testing to estimate material properties such as elastic modulus and fracture toughness across a broad array of soft solids. In this review, we present a brief overview of puncture characterization theory, followed by a survey of experimental puncture results spanning biological tissues, bio-derived materials, and bio-mimetic materials. We examine how probe size, probe shape, sample geometry, and rate-dependent material behavior influence puncture outcomes and the extent to which existing theory accounts for them. Although structural and mechanical variability across biological material systems limits direct cross-study comparison, the scaling relationships and survey methodology presented here offer a practical framework for organizing puncture data and identifying where trends emerge under comparable testing conditions. We conclude with an outlook on emerging opportunities, including the adaptation of puncture testing for high-throughput biomaterials screening and cell culture characterization.