Given the scale and complexity of the target bio-numerical applications,
two underlying design criteria for the environment are applied:
Finite Element methods are primarily to be employed;
numerical solvers should be implemented for execution on parallel
HPC systems.
The "Numerical Solution System" component will include
SimBio-internal solvers and codes in addition to an interface to allow the
integration of external commercial simulation software.
Finite element analysis is a mature technology. Anisotropy,
large displacement, finite strain and contact surfaces are all common
features in bio-mechanical problems.
The stage is being reached at which analysis models are able to represent
closely complex bio-mechanical systems such as that represented by
the human knee or the human head.
Compared with mechanical FE applications, electromagnetic FE techniques
have already reached the maturity to be used in clinical practice.
The solution of the high resolution FE models of the selected BOIs demands
the sort of high-performance computing resource that is now beginning to
find application in the medical/clinical sector. As the SimBio environment
is intended to fulfill the requirements imposed by a wide range of medical
problems, its solution system shows a large assortment of numerical recipes.
