On the employ of meshless methods in biomechanics

In this paper we analyse the convenience and possible advantages of using meshless methods in numerical simulations in biomechanics. While finite elements have been the universal tool during the last decades to perform such simulations, a recently developed wide family of methods, globally coined as meshless methods, has emerged as an attractive choice for an increasing variety of problems. They present some key advantages such as the absence of a mesh in the traditional sense, particularly important in domains of very complex geometry. These methods are also able to easily handle finite strains and large displacements in a Lagrangian framework due to their relatively less sensitivity to the point distributions. In this work we discuss the use of one of them, the natural element method, in biomechanics. After a brief review of this new approach, such a choice is justified and some examples showing the performance of the method are presented.