Jeffrey Weiss, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and faculty member in the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute at the University of Utah and his colleague, Gerard Ateshian, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University, received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to improve the capabilities of FEBio (Finite Elements for Biomechanics), a FE framework designed specifically for analysis in biomechanics and biophysics
Finite element (FE) analysis, a computer method for solving differential equations arising in engineering, has become an indispensable tool for research and discovery in the biomedical sciences. Historically, the lack of an open software environment tailored to the needs of biomechanics and biophysics hampered research progress, dissemination of research and sharing of models and results. In 2007, Prof. Jeffrey Weiss began a collaboration with Columbia University faculty, Prof. Gerard Ateshian, to develop the FEBio software, a FE framework designed specifically for analysis in biomechanics and biophysics (www.febio.org). FEBio employs mixture theory to account for the multi-constituent nature of biological tissues and fluids, unifying the classical fields of irreversible thermodynamics, solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, mass transport, chemical reactions and electrokinetics. This software development effort has been continuously supported by the NIH since 2008.
FEBio’s continued development has met with great success. The FEBio project currently has more than 20,000 registered users, more than 840 publications have referenced FEBio, and the software has been downloaded over 100,000 times. The primary publication for FEBio has been cited over 1,200 times. Development of FEBio Studio, the graphical user interface, has enabled FEBio to become a popular teaching tool – 35 professors around the world use FEBio in their university teaching, including 4 courses in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah.
Renewed by NIH for Project Years 17-20, the Aims for the new funding period include: (1) developing a modeling framework for thermomechanics in solids, fluids, and mixtures; (2) incorporating experimental data to constrain finite element solutions; (3) modeling immersed solid, biphasic, or multiphasic bodies in fluid domains, accounting for fluid-structure interactions and resolving the fluid shear stress in boundary layers surrounding the body; and (4) facilitating software development by the user community. These new capabilities will expand the applicability of FEBio to new fields of biomedical research, further increasing the user base and facilitating scientific advancement.
Utah PI Weiss is pleased to continue working on the project: “This project started as a service opportunity for my colleagues and their students in the biomechanics and biophysics research communities. Early in the project, I often wondered whether the substantial effort required by the project was worthwhile, given that it often pulled me away from other more research-oriented projects. Today, I’m very happy that we persisted. I feel fortunate to have been able to dedicate part of my professional effort to this important project and I am deeply gratified to see the success it has enjoyed. It is very satisfying to open a journal issue and see studies that relied on our software for the science, or to hear how an instructor uses the FEBio software in their classroom teaching. I hope we can continue to support the FEBio project for many more years.”