Generation of Three-Dimensional Finite Element Meshes from CT Dataset of Human Femurs

Three-dimensional finite element meshes of human femur are generated using an automatic grid-based method for biomechanical analysis purpose. The meshing algorithm firstly preproceses the CT slices to extract geometrical information of the femur structure, and then organizes a tagged background grid based on the segmented imaging dataset. The surface triangular mesh is constructed by isosurface extraction, and grid cells inside the isosurface are decomposed into tetrahedral elements quickly using predefined tetrahedralizing stencils. With the background grid constructed in an octree data structure, graded mesh of the femur structure can be generated, resulting in finer tetrahedral elements constructed near the boundary and coarser ones insides. As compared to the uniformly sized method, the graded meshing method produces a lower number of elements and better computational efficiency.