Ocular biomechanics has been primarily focused on diseases of the cornea, trabecular meshwork, sclera, and optic nerve head, with more limited application in the vitreous, lens, and iris. It has provided insight into disease processes and surgical outcomes in various eye disorders. For example, in glaucoma, ocular biomechanics has been used to analyze and predict the importance of the sclera in determining the biomechanics of the lamina cribrosa, the site of axonal damage in glaucoma. In the cornea, the science of biomechanics has been used to better understand the structural basis of corneal ectatic diseases and to develop biomechanically mediated treatments for keratoconus that have already resulted in a global reduction in the number of corneal transplants required for this disease.

Biomechanical engineers use cutting-edge engineering-based computational and experimental techniques to investigate the interaction of ocular tissues with their surroundings, as well as the forces that are common in the eye: intraocular pressure, tensile and torsional muscle tractions, blood flow and vascular pressures, external traumatic forces, cerebrospinal fluid pressure, and tissue growth pressures. The tools bioengineers use include finite element modeling, a computational technique to split complex geometries into small regularly shaped elements, for which loading, mechanical stress (force distribution), and mechanical strain (local deformation) are calculated individually. The results of each of these simple elemental responses are then added up, or superposed, into the overall response of the structure. Measures of tissue deformation under load can now be obtained with imaging techniques, such as ultrasound biomicroscopy, optical coherence tomography, Scheimpflug tomography, infrared corneal reflection monitoring, and magnetic resonance imaging, and these observations can be used to generate various approximations of biomechanical properties and validate computational biomechanics simulations. Many of these measurement technologies are being developed (or are already available) for in vivo and clinical applications.

The structural geometries in the human body are much more complex than typical engineered structures, such as bridges and airplane wings. Biological tissue stiffness is inherently complex in that it changes with orientation (anisotropy), the rate of loading (viscoelasticity), and the level of stretch or compression (hyperelasticity). Computational models require accurate representations of tissue geometry, loading and constraints on the modeled structure, and compliance or stiffness of the tissue constituents. Whereas certain elements of the ocular anatomy such as the cornea are very accessible to measurement, measurements are more difficult to obtain in very small structures and more posterior ocular components. Important factors such as fluid pressures or blood flow are nearly impossible to measure using current technology. When accurate representations of the model inputs are unavailable, simple representative geometries coupled with simplifying assumptions on the loading and tissue material properties can still be used to construct models that reveal fundamental relationships regarding the responses of tissues to load.