Yongjie Zhang¹, Boyle C. Cheng², Changho Oh¹, Jessica L. Spehar², James Burgess³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.29, No.2, pp. 55-62, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.029.055

Abstract The spinal column plays a vital biomechanical role in the human body by providing structural support and facilitating motion. As degenerative changes occur in the spine, surgical treatment may be necessary in certain instances. Such treatments seek to address pain, frequently through the restriction of spinal motion. Traditional spinal implant devices are designed to restrict the motion of a functional spinal unit (FSU) but newer device designs allow for semi-constrained motion such as spinal arthroplasty devices. In this study, a sequence of fluoroscopic imaging data was recorded during the flexibility protocol with an interspinous process spacer device placed at L2-L3.… More >

Ang Li¹, Guo-jian Shao^1,2, Pei-rong Du³, Sheng-yong Ding¹, Jing-bo Su⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.45, No.1, pp. 17-38, 2015, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2015.045.017

Abstract This paper investigates the failure behaviors of stratified rocks under uniaxial compression using a digital image processing (DIP) based finite difference method (FDM). The two-dimensional (2D) mesostructure of stratified rocks, represented as the internal spatial distribution of two main rock materials (marble and greenschist), is first identified with the DIP technique. And then the binaryzation image information is used to generate the finite difference grid. Finally, the failure behaviors of stratified rock samples are simulated by FDM considering the inhomogeneity of rock materials. In the DIP, an image segmentation algorithm based on seeded region growing (SRG) is proposed, instead of… More >

Stephen R. Niezgoda¹, Surya R. Kalidindi^1,2

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.14, No.2, pp. 79-98, 2009, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2009.014.079

Abstract The generalized Hough transform is a common technique for feature detection in image processing. In this paper, we develop a size invariant Hough framework for the detection of arbitrary shapes in three dimensional digital microstructure datasets. The Hough transform is efficiently implemented via kernel convolution with complex Hough filters, where shape is captured in the magnitude of the filter and scale in the complex phase. In this paper, we further generalize the concept of a Hough filter by encoding other parameters of interest (e.g. orientation of plate or fiber constituents) in the complex phase, broadening the applicability of Hough transform… More >