Multiple material mesh generation for biomedical applications

The finite element method is commonly used in biomedical applications for the simulation of the behaviour of biological structures. However, extracting finite element meshes from medical images is still very challenging. We propose an innovative system to create accurate multiple domain tetrahedral meshes from medical images. Our approach is based on an enhanced Marching Tetrahedra algorithm that extracts the boundary surfaces delimiting the different material domains in an integrated manner. Moreover, a surface reconstruction method is employed to ensure that the resulting mesh is a smooth and accurate surface representation of the original sampled structure. Mesh smoothing and decimation algorithms are also revised to conform to the multiple material nature of the system as well as to adhere to the underlying volume data.