%0 Journal Article
%T Tissue Modeling and Analyzing with Finite Element Method: A Review for Cranium Brain Imaging
%A Xianfang Yue
%A Li Wang
%A Ruonan Wang
%J International Journal of Biomedical Imaging
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/781603
%X For the structure mechanics of human body, it is almost impossible to conduct mechanical experiments. Then the finite element model to simulate mechanical experiments has become an effective tool. By introducing several common methods for constructing a 3D model of cranial cavity, this paper carries out systematically the research on the influence law of cranial cavity deformation. By introducing the new concepts and theory to develop the 3D cranial cavity model with the finite-element method, the cranial cavity deformation process with the changing ICP can be made the proper description and reasonable explanation. It can provide reference for getting cranium biomechanical model quickly and efficiently and lay the foundation for further biomechanical experiments and clinical applications. 1. Background There have been many methods used to study the biomechanics of tissue structure today. Biological tissues are widely used in animal experiments, physical experiments, and in vitro (cadaver) experiments, all of which are included in human in vitro experiments. Animal experiments can provide the physiopathological responses in living bodies, but animals in vivo cannot be used to solve all the problems regarding human characteristics, because their tissue structure and functions are different from those of humans. Physical experiments only offer limited effects for lacking of geometrical structure characteristics of living bodies. Human cadaver model experiments would yield experimental data closest to practical outcomes because of the similar geometrical structure characteristics of human cadavers with the living bodies, but the cost is high and simulation of the characteristic changes of living body is difficult when testing. At present, most biomechanical methods can only detect the external mechanical changes of human specimens. Thus, it is difficult to fully reveal the mechanisms of interaction of each part, and the internal structure displacement and internal stress change can be only presumed according to the pathological process, which lacked objective experimental support. Three-dimensional image reconstruction and finite element simulation can solve these problems. Computer simulation experiments, such as finite element models, can reflect the situations after reconstructing repeatedly simulating experiments or changing some parameters according to the biomechanical characteristics, which cannot be obtained by other methods. Finite element method (FEM) has been shown to be an effective analysis of theoretical biomechanics. It uses the mathematical
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijbi/2013/781603/