Adaptive nonlinear finite elements for deformable body simulation using dynamic progressive meshes

Realistic behavior of deformable objects is essential for many applications such as simulation for surgical training. Existing techniques of deformabl e modeling for real time simulation have either used approximate methods th at are not physically accurate or linear methods that do not produce reason able global behavior. Nonlinear finite element methods (FEM) are globally a ccurate, but conventional FEM is not real time. In this paper, we apply non linear FEM using mass lumping to produce a diagonal mass matrix that allows real time computation. Adaptive meshing is necessary to provide sufficient detail where required while minimizing unnecessary computation. We propose a scheme for mesh adaptation based on an extension of the progressive mesh concept, which we call dynamic progressive meshes.