A Tetrahedral Mesh Generation Algorithm from Medical Images

Contour based finite element modeling techniques allow flexible control of the geometric accuracy and of the mesh density. A tetrahedral meshing algorithm is proposed to create tetrahedral meshes from medical images in two steps, the first is surface triangulation, and the second is volume triangulation, both performed between adjacent sections. After the side surfaces between adjacent sections and the planar domains enclosed by sectional contours are triangulated, the solid domains between adjacent sections are tetrahedralized. An advancing front method is used, in which a front consisting of boundary triangles from the sections is maintained, and two group operators are used to construct a group of tetrahedra at a time. The solid domain is discretized efficiently, and the quality of the generated tetrahedra is flexibly controlled due to the strategy of choosing a generation triangle.