Heat conduction-based methodology for nonlinear soft tissue deformation

Abstract

Modelling of interactions of soft tissues with surgical tools is a fundamental issue in interactive surgical simulation. This paper presents a new methodology for modelling of nonlinear characteristics of soft tissue deformation for interactive surgical simulation. The proposed methodology formulates soft tissue deformation as a process of energy propagation; the mechanical load applied to soft tissues to cause deformation is treated as the equivalent thermal energy according to the conservation law of energy and further distributed among masses of soft tissues in the manner of heat conduction. Heat conduction of mechanical load and non-rigid mechanics of motion are combined to conduct soft ..