Corotational Finite Element Formulation for Virtual-Reality Based Surgery Simulators

Abstract

Surgical simulation provides a means for trainees to develop surgical competence that encompasses requisite knowledge, technical and cognitive skills and decision-making ability. Considering virtual-reality based surgery simulators, the key requirement is sufficiently accurate and numerically efficient computation of deformation behavior of soft tissues, which is highly nonlinear. The paper offers a simplified geometrically nonlinear corotational finite element formulation to meet the imposed requirements. The approach is used in combination with a rather simple type of finite element and an appropriate solver is chosen for fast computation of dynamical behavior. The finite element formulation is enriched with a coupled-mesh technique to enable modelling of complex geometries by relatively simple computational models. A few examples of models of internal organs are provided to discuss the aspects of the developed tools.