흉추 CT 영상으로부터 사면체 요소망의 자동생성

Tetrahedral Mesh Generation from CT Images of Thoracic Vertebra

The use of the finite element method for biomechanical analysis is increasing rapidly in recent years. Since biomechanical models are usually in very complex shapes, it takes a lot of time and efforts to build reasonable finite element models. In this paper, a new tetrahedral meshing algorithm from the series of 2-D computed tomography(CT) images has been proposed. In this scheme, the planar sections of three-dimensional objects and the side surfaces between two planar sections are triangulated first, and then an advancing front algorithm is employed to construct tetrahedral elements by using basic operators. A sample finite element model for thoracic vertebra is presented.