BACKGROUND Finite element method (FEM) analysis for intraoperative modeling of the left ventricle (LV) is presently not possible. Since 3D structural data of the LV is now obtainable using standard transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) devices intraoperatively, the present study describes a method to transfer this data into a commercially available FEM analysis system: ABAQUS. METHODS In thi...

The lobes of the NASA ULDB pumpkin-shaped super-pressure balloons are made of a thin polymeric film that shows considerable time-dependent behaviour. A nonlinear viscoelastic model based on experimental measurements has been recently established for this film. This paper presents a simulation of the viscoelastic behaviour of ULDB balloons with the finite element software ABAQUS. First, the stan...

Methods in detecting damages in structural components and monitoring their health is on the way to develop in today’s technology. Approaches; nondestructive towards the part or with the lowest risk; which locate the damage and even diagnose its size, are accentuating the importance of smart materials. One of these materials are piezoelectric that is used both as transducers and actuators in res...

Several approaches for simulating ultrasound are available. The main tools are Finite or Boundary element methods and the spatial impulse response methods. Finite and Boundary Element methods are the most flexible but also the most computationally expensive tools available. On the other hand the spatial impulse response is restricted only to linear acoustic problem, but with low computational d...

Analyses of dynamic responses are significantly important for the design, maintenance and rehabilitation of asphalt pavement. In order to evaluate the dynamic responses of asphalt pavement under moving loads, a specific computational program, SAFEM, was developed based on a semi-analytical finite element method. This method is three-dimensional and only requires a two-dimensional FE discretizat...

In the selective laser sintering (SLS) manufacturing technique a pre-heated layer of material powder undergoes a laser radiation in a selective way to produce three dimensional metallic or polymeric solid parts. Here, we consider sintering of polymer powder. The phase transformation in this process involves the material heat transfer which is strongly affected by the material sintering phenomen...

The paper presents a simple but efficient new numerical scheme for the integration of nonlinear constitutive equations. Although it can be used for integration of system of algebraic and differential equations in general, the scheme is primarily developed for use with direct solution methods for solving boundary value problems, e.g. explicit dynamic analysis in ABAQUS/Explicit. In the developed...