Automatic generation of tetrahedral meshes from medical images

A new tetrahedral meshing algorithm from the series of medical images is proposed. Sectional contours are extracted from medical images, and by the use of correspondence, tiling, and branching process, the side surfaces between sections are triangulated in addition to the triangulation on each section. As for the mesh generation for an object between two sections, an advancing front algorithm is employed to generate tetrahedral elements by using basic operators. Sample meshes are constructed from medical images for finite element analysis of biomechanical models.