Discrete Stress Analysis on Point-Cloud Model Derived From Medical Images

Pixel or voxel data from the medical images provide a point-cloud depiction for complicated anatomies that are difficult to describe in CAD geometry. Traditionally, a point-cloud model needs to be converted into finite element mesh in order to perform mechanical analysis. Although meshing generation tools have been significantly improved over the last decades, generating high quality meshes in complicated bodies remains a challenge. Recently, the authors developed a family of solid mechanics solvers that work directly on domains represented by point-clouds [1,2]. Using this method, it is possible to conduct mechanical analysis on point-cloud representations of patient-specific organs without resorting to finite element method. In this article, we describe this paradigm of analysis and demonstrate the method with numerical examples.