Content-Adaptive Finite Element Mesh Generation of 3-D Complex MR Volumes for Bioelectromagnetic Problems

Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2005:2005:4373-6. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2005.1615434.

Abstract

In studying bioelectromagnetic problems, finite element method offers several advantages over other conventional methods such as boundary element method. It allows truly volumetric analysis and incorporation of material properties such as anisotropy. Mesh generation is the first requirement in the finite element analysis and there are many different approaches in mesh generation. However conventional approaches offered by commercial packages and various algorithms do not generate content-adaptive meshes, resulting in numerous elements in the smaller volume regions, thereby increasing computational load and demand. In this work, we present an improved content-adaptive mesh generation scheme that is efficient and fast along with options to change the contents of meshes. For demonstration, mesh models of the head from a volume MRI are presented in 2-D and 3-D.