Intraoperative 3D Finite Element Computation Using CUDA

As the Finite Element method is becoming more pervasive in scientific and engineering endeavors, the application space of the method increases as well. This work provides indication that real-time surgical application is also possible. The challenge is reducing the solution times of this, computationally expensive method, to the point that FE on patient organs can be done during surgery. This paper presents an implementation of a Total Lagrangian Explicit Dynamic Finite Element algorithm on General Purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs) that suggests the fulfillment of this constraint. The usability of the method is demonstrated by conducting a broad assay on ranging model sizes and different GPGPUs and comparing the accuracy and speed to a CPU solution. In doing so, we study the effect of using single/double precision computation.