Hi iMechanica-experts,
I'm working with soft tissue models of abdominal organs (e.g. liver) for surgery simulation. These models are alway constructed from segmented surface files (triangles, e.g. .stl). I'm devloping an algorithm that uses isometric quadratic tetrahedral (tet10) elements (mainly in order to reduce volume locking). Now I'd like to generate a tet10 mesh from the surface mesh.
Currently I use 3-Matic to generate linear tetrahedral meshes from the .stl files. While it is possible to just add a node on each side of the triangle to convert this tet4 mesh to tet10 (this can be done with 3-Matic) I haven't found a way to generate real isometric quadratic tetrahedral meshes.
Could anybody recommend a good isometric tet10 mesh generator to me? I think Abaqus can do that, but only if the input geometry consists of NURBS objects (e.g. .step file). I would prefer a workflow that could directly work with the .stl surface file. Has anybody an idea for this problem?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Cheers,
Stefan