Needle insertion simulations play an important role in medical training and surgical planning. Most simulations require boundary conforming meshes, while the diffuse domain approach, currently limited to stiff needles, eliminates the need for meshing geometries. In this article the diffuse domain approach for needle insertion simulations is first extended to the use of flexible needles with bevel needle tips, which are represented by an Euler-Bernoulli beam. The model parameters are tuned …