title: A three-dimensional large deformation model for soft tissue using meshless method.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, a great number of studies have been carried out to model soft tissue deformation in contact with surgical instruments to aid the development of surgical simulators. Precise methods to model the soft tissue such as the Finite Element Method (FEM) lack accuracy in large deformations.
  
  
  METHODS
  An innovative meshless method is used, which has high precision and is applicable to large deformations. The meshless simulation method is implemented for a 2D beam and a 3D cube. Experiments are conducted for two silicone-gel samples to verify the correctness of the method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The meshless results in 2D and 3D show better accuracy for large deformations in comparison with the FEM. This method is used to model human organs such as liver and gallbladder.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is concluded that the proposed model exhibits good accuracy as well as speed. Thus, it seems promising to be employed in surgical simulators. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Dehghan
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Abdolreza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rahimi
authors.affiliation: Electrical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.|New Technologies Research Centre (NTRC), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Heidar Ali
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Talebi
authors.affiliation: New Technologies Research Centre (NTRC), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zareinejad
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003199:Computer Systems; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D005704:Gallbladder / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D010535:Laparoscopy; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012828:Silicones / Q000737:chemistry; D013525:Surgical Instruments
chemical_list: D012828:Silicones
keywords: element-free Galerkin method; large deformations; meshless method; soft tissue modelling; surgical simulator