Advanced Soft Tissue Modeling for Surgical Simulation and Telemedicine

摘要

The objectives of this project were to develop computer based models of soft tissues that could eventually be integrated into virtual reality-based surgical simulators. To that end, we have developed a number of computer algorithms that span the scales from the microstructural to the phenomenological, and from 1-D to 3-D. For the 1-D case, we have developed a model of fractional order viscoelasticity. For the 3-D case, we have developed an invariant-based formulation of dispersed isotropy and implemented it in a model of blood vessel. Although the later employs as statistical measure of fiber dispersion, both a essentially phenomenological models. To implement tissue microstructure, we developed a micromechanical model based on the General Method of Cells. Through this model, we were able to model fiber-matrix interactions explicitly. These models are currently being validated and implemented into larger organ simulations.