Physically realistic interactive simulation for biological soft tissues

Many applications in biomedical engineering and surgical simulators require effective modeling methods for dynamic interactive simulations. Due to its high computation time, the standard Finite Element Method (FEM) cannot be used in such cases. A FEM-based method is first presented, which rely on the decomposition of the deformation of each element into a rigid motion and a pure deformation, and a fast implicit dynamic integration without assembling a global Correspondence/Reprint request: Dr. Matthieu Nesme, GRAVIR-IMAG Laboratory, UMR CNRS 5522 INRIA 655 av. de l'Europe 38330 Montbonnot St Martin, France. E-mail: [email protected] Matthieu Nesme et al. 2 stiffness matrix. A second physically-based discrete method is also proposed, derived from computer graphics modeling. These methods are finally compared, in terms of accuracy and speed, to theoretical problems, FEM results and experimental data.