Boundary elements and β-spline surface modeling for medical applications

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss an approach based on the integration of the boundary element method (BEM) with beta-spline geometric modeling of the different surfaces involved in the external bone remodeling phenomena. The purpose of combining these two techniques is to avoid the jagged edges shapes and thus, to increase the convergence speed of the bone remodeling function. In this study, the external bone remodeling model proposed by Fridez et al. [P. Fridez, L. Rakotomanana, A. Terrier, P.F. Leyvraz, Three dimensional model of bone external adaptation, Comput. Methods Biomech. Biomed. Eng. 2 (1998) 189-196] is used. This model shows the change of the external bone surface remodeling at a boundary point, as a function of the stimulus variable psi. This variable is related to the stress tensor and the normal vector to that point. The beta-spline surfaces were used because they are simple and reliable to smooth the contour by using the less possible number of geometric constraints. Some numerical examples are presented and discussed in order to show the versatility of the proposed approach. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.