Automated generation of a finite element stent model.

Numerical simulations have proven to be a valuable tool to investigate the mechanical behavior of stents. These computer models require a considerable amount of preprocessing and computational effort and consequently there is a continuous need for accurate simplifications and automation. For example, it was recently shown that using beam elements instead of solid elements results in a significant speed up of stent simulations. However, the currently applied techniques to create a finite element mesh starting from stent samples remain time-consuming. We present a semi-automated strategy to obtain an accurate finite element beam mesh from a stent sample. The method consists of two steps: (1) A triangulated surface representation of the stent geometry is obtained from micro CT images. (2) Subsequently, a beam mesh is automatically generated by computing the centerline. The method is time-effective and results in an accurate 3D stent model as demonstrated for the MULTI-LINK Vision stent.