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Method for automatically generating a two-dimensional triangular mesh of a bone from a CT image considering its density heterogeneity

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Abstract

To perform numerical analyses, such as bio-mechanical analyses, on bones, it is necessary to construct the mesh model of the shape of the bone. In previous studies, the mesh has been generated by assuming that bones are homogeneous in terms of material distribution. However, bones are inherently heterogeneous. Therefore, the mesh has to be generated by considering the variation of the properties of bones. In this study, we propose a method for automatically generating a bone mesh by considering its heterogeneity. However, only two-dimensional triangular meshes are considered. In the proposed method, the boundary polylines of a bone are extracted from its computed tomography (CT) image using the marching squares method. Nodes are randomly generated on and inside the boundary polylines, and triangles are generated from the nodes by Delaunay triangulation. When the nodes are generated on and inside the boundary polylines, the density of the nodes is controlled by threshold functions defined by the magnitude of the gradient vector of the Hounsfield unit values of the CT image. The proposed method was implemented using C++ and visualization toolkit, and experiments were performed using CT images on the right femur, hip bones, and vertebra. We also verified that the proposed method can generate meshes reflecting the variation of the properties of bones.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2017R1 D1A1B03028274) and the Industry Core Technology Development Program (Project ID: 20000725) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Korean government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheonan, 31253, Korea

    Byung Chul Kim & Junho Lee

  2. School of Industrial Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gumi, 39177, Korea

    Ki-Youn Kwon

Authors
  1. Byung Chul Kim
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  2. Junho Lee
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  3. Ki-Youn Kwon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ki-Youn Kwon.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Seungjae Min

Byung Chul Kim is an Assistant Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, the Korea University of Technology and Education. He has received his M.S. and Ph.D. from KAIST, and a B.S. from Korea University. His research interests are computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, point cloud and mesh processing, artificial intelligence-based design, product data modeling and exchange, and other related areas. His application domains are all industries related to mechanical engineering such as automobile, shipbuilding, power plant, aircraft, and semiconductor.

Ki-Youn Kwon is an Assistant Professor at the School of Industrial Engineering, the Kumoh National Institute of Technology. He has received his Ph.D. from KAIST, and a M.S. and B.S. from Korea University. His research interests are computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, mesh generation, digital collaboration, cad model exchange, dimensional quality management. His application domains are all industries related to mechanical engineering such as automobile, shipbuilding and plant.

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Kim, B.C., Lee, J. & Kwon, KY. Method for automatically generating a two-dimensional triangular mesh of a bone from a CT image considering its density heterogeneity. J Mech Sci Technol 34, 2941–2952 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0626-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0626-1

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