FEniCS-based Biomechanical Framework for 3D Human Brain Folding Simulation
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Computational modeling is a promising way to investigate the brain growth biomechanics [1]. Most models in the field are developed using proprietary software (e.g. Abaqus, COMSOL). In this work, we propose an open source computational model of the brain growth dynamics based on FEniCS [2]. Our model is developed as a modular framework with the following adjustable components: input mesh and biophysical features; growth tensor; constitutive model of the material; a variational formulation of the non-linear mechanical problem; contact mechanics. We use an implicit method in the temporal domain to obtain an unconditionally stable numerical scheme. The complete simulation pipeline relies on open source tools such as 3D Slicer, Meshlab, Netgen and FEniCS. The framework also includes evaluation metrics like mean curvature and gyrification index. One simulation on a 3D human brain mesh of ~7.10⁵ tetrahedron elements takes ~160s per iteration on Intel Xeon (8 cores, 3.5GHz). This framework may enable further investigation on main factors leading to human brain folding.
