Fully automatic mesh generator for 3D domains of any shape

Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 2010

This paper describes an automatic and efficient approach to construct unstructured tetrahedral and hexahedral meshes for a composite domain made up of heterogeneous materials. The boundaries of these material regions form non-manifold surfaces. In earlier papers, we developed an octree-based isocontouring method to construct unstructured 3D meshes for a single-material (homogeneous) domain with manifold boundary. In this paper, we introduce the notion of a material change edge and use it to identify the interface between two or several different materials. A novel method to calculate the minimizer point for a cell shared by more than two materials is provided, which forms a non-manifold node on the boundary. We then mesh all the material regions simultaneously and automatically while conforming to their boundaries directly from volumetric data. Both material change edges and interior edges are analyzed to construct tetrahedral meshes, and interior grid points are analyzed for proper hexahedral mesh construction. Finally, edge-contraction and smoothing methods are used to improve the quality of tetrahedral meshes, and a combination of pillowing, geometric flow and optimization techniques is used for hexahedral mesh quality improvement. The shrink set of pillowing schemes is defined automatically as the boundary of each material region. Several application results of our multi-material mesh generation method are also provided.

1994

The research reported in this dissertation was undertaken to investigate efficient computational methods of automatically generating three dimensional unstructured tetrahedral meshes. The work on two dimensional triangular unstructured grid generation by Lewis and Robinson [LeR76] is first examined, in which a recursive bisection technique of computational order nlog(n) was implemented. This technique is then extended to incorporate new methods of geometry input and the automatic handling of multiconnected regions. The method of two dimensional recursive mesh bisection is then further modified to incorporate an improved strategy for the selection of bisections. This enables an automatic nodal placement technique to be implemented in conjunction with the grid generator. The dissertation then investigates methods of generating triangular grids over parametric surfaces. This includes a new definition of surface Delaunay triangulation with the extension of grid improvement techniques to...

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 2000

An algorithm is presented for the triangulation of arbitrary non-convex polyhedral regions starting with a prescribed boundary triangulation matching existing mesh entities in the remainder of the domain. The algorithm is designed to circumvent the termination problems of volume meshing algorithms which manifest themselves in the inability to successfully create tetrahedra within small subdomains to be referred to herein as cavities. To address this need, a robust Delaunay algorithm with an e cient and termination guaranteed face recovery method is the most appropriate approach. The algorithm begins with Delaunay vertex insertion followed by a face recovery method that conserves the boundary of the cavity by utilizing local mesh modi cation operations such as edge split, collapse and swap and a new set of tools which we call complex splits. The local mesh modi cations are performed in such a manner that each original surface triangulation is represented either as was, or as a concatenation of triangles. When done in this manner, it is always possible to split the matching mesh entities, ensuring that a compatible mesh is created. The algorithm is robust and has been tested against complex manifold and non-manifold cavities resulting in a valid mesh of the entire domain.

Handbook of Computational Geometry, 2000

We present a preliminary method to generate polyhedral meshes of general non-manifold domains. The method is based on computing the dual of a general tetrahedral mesh. The resulting mesh respects the topology of the domain to the same extent as the input mesh. If the input tetrahedral mesh is Delaunay and well-centered, the resulting mesh is a Voronoi mesh with planar faces. For general tetrahedral meshes, the resulting mesh is a polyhedral mesh with straight edges but possibly curved faces. The initial mesh generation phase is followed by a mesh untangling and quality improvement technique. We demonstrate the technique on some simple to moderately complex domains.

2007

Abstract: This paper describes an approach to construct unstructured tetrahedral and hexa-hedral meshes for a domain with multiple materials. We have developed an octree-based iso-contouring method to construct unstructured 3D meshes for a single material domain. Based on it, we analyze each material change edge instead of sign change edge to figure out in-terfaces between two materials, and mesh each material region with conforming boundaries. Two kinds of surfaces, the boundary surface and the interface between two different material regions, are meshed and distinguished. Both material change edges and interior edges are an-alyzed to construct tetrahedral meshes, and interior grid points are analyzed for hexahedral mesh construction. Finally the edge-contraction and smoothing method is used to improve the quality of tetrahedral meshes, and a combination of pillowing, geometric flow and optimiza-tion techniques are used for hexahedral mesh quality improvement. The shrink set is def...

Proceedings of the 16th International Meshing Roundtable, 2008

This paper describes an approach to construct unstructured tetrahedral and hexahedral meshes for a domain with multiple materials. In earlier works, we developed an octreebased isocontouring method to construct unstructured 3D meshes for a single-material domain. Based on this methodology, we introduce the notion of material change edge and use it to identify the interface between two or several materials. We then mesh each material region with conforming boundaries. Two kinds of surfaces, the boundary surface and the interface between two different material regions, are distinguished and meshed. Both material change edges and interior edges are analyzed to construct tetrahedral meshes, and interior grid points are analyzed for hexahedral mesh construction. Finally the edge-contraction and smoothing method is used to improve the quality of tetrahedral meshes, and a combination of pillowing, geometric flow and optimization techniques is used for hexahedral mesh quality improvement. The shrink set is defined automatically as the boundary of each material region. Several application results in different research fields are shown.

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 1997

This paper aims to outline the di erent phases necessary to implement a Delaunay-type automatic mesh generator. First, it summarizes this method and then describes a variant which is numerically robust by mentioning at the same time the problems to solve and the di erent solutions possible. The Delaunay insertion process by itself, the boundary integrity problem, the way to create the ÿeld points as well as the optimization procedures are discussed. The two-dimensional situation is described fully and possible extensions to the three-dimensional case are brie y indicated. ? 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mesh creation is one of the primary tasks in implementing the Finite Element Method (FEM) to solve two-and three-dimensional boundary value problems. However, the whole procedure becomes tedious and problematic when higher-order finite elements are employed to construct mesh and prepare corresponding element data. In this study, we strive to develop a versatile algorithm for discretizing the two-dimensional domain using linear, quadratic, and cubic triangular finite elements. The algorithm is developed based on n vertices (actual or more in number) that constitute the boundary of the domain, along with a computed (n+1)-th point such as the centroid. The algorithm, using this input, generates an initial mesh consisting of n triangular elements. Then, in every subsequent step, the algorithm increases the number of triangles in the mesh fourfold compared to the previous step. The algorithm we present here can employ (a) straight-sided (linear, quadratic, and cubic) triangular elements to generate the mesh for domains with polygonal boundaries and (b) both straight-sided and curved (quadratic and cubic) triangular elements with two straight sides and one curved side to generate meshes f or domains with curved boundaries. Thus, the algorithm generates the desired meshes if the vertices are specified once at the initial step. Additionally, the inclusion of the mathematical expression of the curved boundary enables the algorithm to generate the fine mesh for the curved domain utilizing higher-order curved and straight-sided triangular elements. We also present a computer code in MATLAB incorporating the algorithm to create the mesh, prepare the element's data, and determine the element's connectivity.

Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 2006

In this paper, some current issues of Delaunay mesh generation and optimization are addressed, with particular emphasis on the robustness of the meshing procedure and the quality of the resulting mesh. We also report new progress on the robust conforming and constrained boundary recovery in three dimensions, along with the quality mesh generation based on Centroidal Voronoi tessellations. Applications to the numerical solution of differential equations and integrations with other softwares are discussed, including a brief discussion on the joint mesh and solver adaptation strategy.