How to generate a FE grid of a hollow segmentation

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Hi all,
I’m new to 3D slicer and probably my issue has been already solved in the past (if so, can someone please address me to the right topic?).

I would like to generate a volumetric mesh of the left ventricle wall for FE analysis from a CT/MRI/else.

I tried to work with the CT data set from the tutorial and I was able to segment the different parts of the heart and applied the hollow procedure to somehow approximate the epi- and endocardium layers.

2021-01-11-Scene1
2021-01-11-Scene11343×1005 170 KB

However, when I use SegmentMesher for generate the FE (either with Clever or TetGen), the model is made of a “full” left ventricle, as if it doesn’t see the interior wall (what should be the endocardium) but as the meshing procedure fills the entire volume inside the exterior surface.

Moreover, if this procedure is possible, I would also need to generate the index matrices of the points only on the two surfaces, but only after generating the FE grid for the volume between the two surfaces.

Does anyone can help me?
Thank you all,
Mai

2

You can create volumetric meshes of thin shells but it requires you to adjust meshing parameters to create a very fine mesh. Memory usage during meshing will be high and may take 5-10 minutes to generate the mesh, but you should be able to get good results.

However, if you want to model a thin-walled object then probably you will get much better if you represent it with a shell model in your FE software. Simulation may be magnitudes faster and more robust. You can get the shell model by exporting the segmentation to a model.