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Efficient soft tissue characterization under large deformations in medical simulations

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Abstract

The modeling of soft tissue behavior is essential for virtual reality (VR)-based medical simulation, providing a safe and objective medium for training of the medical personnel. This paper presents a soft tissue modeling framework including instrumentation design, in vitro organ experiments and material property characterization. As observed from the force responses measured by a force transducer, the tissue was assumed as a nonlinear, continuous, incompressible, homogeneous and isotropic material for modeling. An electromechanical indentation system to measure the mechanical behavior of soft tissues was designed, and a series harvested organ in vitro experiments were performed. The non-linear soft tissue model parameters were then extracted by matching finite element model predictions with the empirical data. The soft tissue characterization algorithm could become computationally efficient by reducing the number of parameters. The developed tissue models are suitable for computing accurate reaction forces on surgical instruments and for computing deformations of organ surfaces for the VR based medical simulation.

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Abbreviations

S(t):

Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor

G(t):

Reduced relaxation function

E(λ):

Strain tensor

Se(E(λ)):

Material’s pure elastic response

τi :

Reduced relaxation time constant

W:

Strain energy function

C10 :

Mechanical parameter having a unit of stress

I1 :

Principal invariant

ki :

Rigidity modulus

R2 :

Coefficient of determination

Fe :

Measured force

Fs :

Simulated force

Λ:

Marquardt parameter

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical, Aerospace & Systems Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, South Korea, 305-701

    Bummo Ahn & Jung Kim

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  1. Bummo Ahn
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  2. Jung Kim
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Correspondence to Jung Kim.

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Ahn, B., Kim, J. Efficient soft tissue characterization under large deformations in medical simulations. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 10, 115–121 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-009-0079-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-009-0079-z

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