Physical Model Language: Towards a Unified Representation for Continuous and Discrete Models

Abstract

Different approaches exist for modeling human tissues, mostly discrete and continuous physical models, e.g. respectively Mass-Spring Networks and Finite Element Method. Whatever approach is chosen, the modeling scheme always follows the same pattern from the generation of the 3D geometry to the analysis of the simulation results. However there are no generic tools that allow for designing a physical model independently from the approach. This yields to the development of specific tools that are not reusable and that do not facilitate the comparison between methods. In this article we propose a framework that takes into account every step of the modeling process, and that can be used for any type of approach. We define an extensible language to represent both continuous and discrete physical models as well as a language to define constraints and loads to be applied during simulation. The usability of this generic framework is shown through two examples.