扫掠法有限元网格生成方法

为了提高有限元网格的生成质量,扫掠法生成六面体网格过程中内部节点定位成为关键一步,在研究复杂扫掠体六面体有限元网格生成算法过程中,提出了一种基于扫掠法的六面体网格生成算法,算法利用源曲面已经划分好的网格和连接曲面的结构化网格,用仿射映射逐层投影,生成目标曲面,提出基于Roca算法的内部节点定位的新算法,运用由外向内推进的波前法思想,生成全部的六面体网格。通过实例表明,该算法快速,稳定,可靠,可处理大量复杂2.5维实体六面体网格生成问题。     

多源多目标扫掠体的全六面体网格自动生成算法

为实现多源多目标扫掠体六面体网格生成,提出针对该类形体的全六面体网格自动生成算法.该算法结合虚面和虚拟分解算法,将多源多目标扫掠体自动分解为多个多源扫掠子体;再采用多源扫掠网格生成方法生成各子体网格,整体网格则由各子体网格自动组合而成.文中给出了完整的虚拟分解算法,在虚拟分解流程中的"压印"环节利用改进的边界约束Delaunay三角化方法统一处理各类情形,避免了传统算法复杂的分类讨论.最后给出多个网格实例及其网格质量数据,验证了文中算法的实用性.     

一种基于逻辑栅格的网格自动生成算法

针对基于栅格法对表面变动较大的模型进行网格划分适应性差的问题,提出一种基于逻辑栅格的六面体网格自动生成算法。该算法对基于栅格法的思想进行改进,避开一次生成模型初始栅格,将模型离散为一系列截面,对相邻截面采用矢量求交方法形成一对截面的初始栅格,修正初始栅格形成两截面之间的一层网格,形成整体模型。采用改进的栅格法进行复杂地形拱坝坝肩块体网格自动生成,取得较好的效果,结果证明改进的栅格法对复杂地形适应性强,模型表面变动较大时能自动进行网格退化。     

Adaptive generation of hexahedral element mesh using an improved grid-based method

An improved grid-based algorithm for the adaptive generation of hexahedral finite element mesh is presented in this paper. It is named as the inside-out grid-based method and involves the following four steps. The first step is the generation of an initial grid structure which envelopes the analyzed solid model completely. And the elements size and density maps are constructed based on the surface curvature and local thickness of the solid model. Secondly, the core mesh is generated through removing all the undesired elements using even and odd parity rules. The third step is to magnify the core mesh in an inside-out manner through a surface node projection process using the closest position approach. To match the mesh to the characteristic boundary of the solid model, a minimal Scaled Jacobian criterion is employed. Finally, in order to handle the degenerated elements and improve the quality of the resulting mesh, two comprehensive techniques are employed: the insertion technique and collapsing technique. The present method was applied in the mesh construction of different engineering problems. Scaled Jacobian and Skew metrics are used to evaluate the hexahedral element mesh quality. The application results show that all-hexahedral element meshes which are well-shaped and capture all the geometric features of the original solid models can be generated using the inside-out grid-based method presented in this paper.     

A modified advancing layers mesh generation for thin three-dimensional objects with variable thickness

A method of generating modified advancing layers mesh is proposed. In this paper the mesh generation process of semi-unstructured prismatic/tetrahedral mesh is presented for relatively thin three-dimensional geometries with variable thickness, as in the case of injection molding analysis. Prismatic meshes are generated by offsetting initial surface triangular meshes. During the mesh generation process, mesh quality is efficiently improved with the use of a new node relocation method. Finally, tetrahedral meshes are automatically generated in the rest of the domain. The mesh generating capability of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated with the several practical test cases.     

As-rigid-as-possible mesh deformation and its application in hexahedral mesh generation

This paper presents an efficient and stable as-rigid-as-possible mesh deformation algorithm for planar shape deformation and hexahedral mesh generation. The deformation algorithm aims to preserve two local geometric properties: scale-invariant intrinsic variables and elastic deformation energy, which are together represented in a quadric energy function. To preserve these properties, the position of each vertex is further adjusted by iteratively minimizing this quadric energy function to meet the position constraint of the controlling points. Experimental results show that the deformation algorithm is efficient, and can obtain physically plausible results, which have the same topology structure with the original mesh. Such a mesh deformation method is useful to project the source surface mesh onto the target surfaces in hexahedral mesh generation based on sweep method, and application results show that the proposed method is feasible to mesh projection not only between similar surface contours but also dissimilar surface contours.     

Using sequential NETGEN as a component for a parallel mesh generator

A parallel tetrahedral mesh generator is developed using the existing sequential NETGEN mesh generator. Mesh generation algorithms developed decompose the geometry into multiple sub-geometries sequentially on a master node and then mesh each sub-geometry in parallel on multiple processors. Two methods are implemented. The first decomposes the geometry and produces conforming surface sub-meshes from which volume meshes can be generated in parallel. A second refinement based method also makes use of the CAD geometry information. A scalable mesh migration algorithm that utilizes “owner updates” rule is implemented. Results show that using the refinement based method, a mesh with a billion elements can be generated in about a minute.     

Hexahedral mesh smoothing via local element regularization and global mesh optimization

The quality of finite element meshes is one of the key factors that affect the accuracy and reliability of finite element analysis results. In order to improve the quality of hexahedral meshes, we present a novel hexahedral mesh smoothing algorithm which combines a local regularization for each hexahedral mesh, using dual element based geometric transformation, with a global optimization operator for all hexahedral meshes. The global optimization operator is composed of three main terms, including the volumetric Laplacian operator of hexahedral meshes and the geometric constraints of surface meshes which keep the volumetric details and the surface details, and another is the transformed node displacements condition which maintains the regularity of all elements. The global optimization operator is formulated as a quadratic optimization problem, which is easily solved by solving a sparse linear system. Several experimental results are presented to demonstrate that our method obtains higher quality results than other state-of-the-art approaches.     

An improved hexahedral mesh matching algorithm

Mesh matching is an effective way to convert the non-conforming interfaces between two hexahedral meshes into conforming ones, which is very important for achieving high-quality finite element analysis. However, the existing mesh matching algorithm is neither efficient nor effective enough to handle complex interfaces and self-intersecting sheets. In this paper, the algorithm is improved in three aspects: (1) by introducing a more precise criteria for chord matching and the concept of partition chord set, complex interfaces with internal loops can be handled more effectively; (2) by proposing a new solution, self-intersecting sheet can be inflated and extracted locally; and (3) by putting forward a mesh quality evaluation method, the sheet extraction operation during mesh matching can be done more efficiently. Our improved mesh matching algorithm is fully automatic, and its effectiveness is demonstrated by several examples in different matching situations.     

An algorithm for automatic 2D finite element mesh generation with line constraints

In this study, an algorithm is designed specifically for automatic finite element (FE) mesh generation on the transverse structure of hulls reinforced by stiffeners. Stiffeners attached to the transverse structure are considered as line constraints in the geometry boundary. For the FE mesh generation used in this study, the line constraints are treated as boundaries and by that means the geometry domain attached to the line constraints is decomposed into sub-domains, constrained only by the closed boundaries. Then, the mesh can be generated directly on those sub-domains by the traditional approach. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated and the quality of the generated mesh meets expectations.     

Anisotropic quadrilateral mesh generation: An indirect approach

In this paper a new indirect approach is presented for anisotropic quadrilateral mesh generation based on discrete surfaces. The ability to generate grids automatically had a pervasive influence on many application areas in particularly in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics. In spite of considerable advances in automatic grid generation there is still potential for better performance and higher element quality. The aim is to generate meshes with less elements which fit some anisotropy criterion to satisfy numerical accuracy while reducing processing times remarkably. The generation of high quality volume meshes using an advancing front algorithm relies heavily on a well designed surface mesh. For this reason this paper presents a new technique for the generation of high quality surface meshes containing a significantly reduced number of elements. This is achieved by creating quadrilateral meshes that include anisotropic elements along a source of anisotropy.     

An approach to automated decomposition of volumetric mesh

Mesh decomposition is critical for analyzing, understanding, editing and reusing of mesh models. Although there are many methods for mesh decomposition, most utilize only triangular meshes. In this paper, we present an automated method for decomposing a volumetric mesh into semantic components. Our method consists of three parts. First, the outer surface mesh of the volumetric mesh is decomposed into semantic features by applying existing surface mesh segmentation and feature recognition techniques. Then, for each recognized feature, its outer boundary lines are identified, and the corresponding splitter element groups are setup accordingly. The inner volumetric elements of the feature are then obtained based on the established splitter element groups. Finally, each splitter element group is decomposed into two parts using the graph cut algorithm; each group completely belongs to one feature adjacent to the splitter element group. In our graph cut algorithm, the weights of the edges in the dual graph are calculated based on the electric field, which is generated using the vertices of the boundary lines of the features. Experiments on both tetrahedral and hexahedral meshes demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.     

复杂曲面混合网格的生成算法

有限元网格质量的好坏对金属成形模拟的精度和效率有很大影响。提出了一种复杂曲面混合网格自动生成算法，该算法根据所要划分的网格密度形成初始化边界节点，逐步向内铺砌混合网格，直至布满整个区域。应用实践表明．该算法具有稳定、准确和速度快的特点，生成的网格在相邻曲面边界处不会产生裂缝与覆盖，很好地满足了金属成形模拟分析软件对网格划分的要求。     

复杂曲面上的四边形网格生成方法

提出了一种曲面上全四边形网格的生成方法。该方法从曲面的边界开始,向内逐个生成单元,利用曲面的局部形状特征控制单元的尺寸,这样可以适应复杂的边界形状,通用性较强。文中介绍了算法的基本思想,提出了多个曲面相邻情况下边界上节点的生成以及一个新的节点环冲突检测方法,最后给出了两个网格生成的实例。     

基于黎曼度量参数曲面四边形网格生成方法及UG 实现

论文给出了基于黎曼度量的参数曲面网格生成的改进铺砖算法。阐述了曲 面自身的黎曼度量,并且运用黎曼度量计算二维参数域上单元节点的位置,从而使映射到三 维物理空间的四边形网格形状良好。文中对原有铺砖法相交处理进行了改进,在运用铺砖法 的同时调用UG-NX 强大的二次开发库函数获取相应的信息,直接在UG-NX 模型的表面生 成四边形网格。算例表明,该法能在曲面上生成质量好的网格。     

Automatic mesh generation on a regular background grid

This paper presents and automatic mesh generation procedure on a 2D domain based on a regular background grid.The idea is to devise a robust mesh generation scheme with equal emphasis on quality and efficiency,Instead of using a traditional regular rectangular grid,a mesh of equilateral triangles is employed to ensure triangular element of the best quality will be preserved in the interior of the domain.As for the boundary,it is to be generated by a node/segment insertion process.Nodes are inserted into the background mesh one by one following the sequence of the domain boundary.The local strcture of the mesh is modified based on the Delaunay criterion with the introduction of each node.Those boundary segments.which are not produced in the phase of node insertion,will be recovered through a systematic element swap produced in the phase of node insertion will be recovered through a systematic element swap process.Two theorems will be presented and proved to set up the theoretical basic of the boundary recovery part.Examples will be presented to demonstrate the robustness and the quality of the mesh generated by the proposed technique.     

An efficient generation method of embedded reinforcement in hexahedral elements for reinforced concrete simulations

In this paper, an automatic procedure for the generation of embedded steel reinforcement inside hexahedral finite elements is presented. The automatic mapping of the entire reinforcement network inside the concrete hexahedral finite elements is performed using the end-point coordinates of the rebar reinforcement macro-elements. By introducing a geometrical constraint, this procedure decreases significantly the computational effort for generating the input data of the embedded rebar elements in three-dimensional finite-element analysis, particularly when dealing with relatively large-scale reinforced concrete models. The computational robustness and efficiency of the proposed mesh generation method are demonstrated through numerical experiments.     

Surface mesh regeneration considering curvatures

This work describes an automatic algorithm for unstructured mesh regeneration on arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional surfaces. The arbitrary surface may be: a triangulated mesh, a set of points, or an analytical surface (such as a collection of NURBS patches). To be generic, the algorithm works directly in Cartesian coordinates, as opposed to generating the mesh in parametric space, which might not be available in all the cases. In addition, the algorithm requires the implementation of three generic functions that abstractly represent the supporting surface. The first, given a point location, returns the desired characteristic size of a triangular element at this position. The second method, given the current edge in the boundary-contraction algorithm, locates the ideal apex point that forms a triangle with this edge. And the third method, given a point in space and a projection direction, returns the closest point on the geometrical supporting surface. This work also describes the implementation of these three methods to re-mesh an existing triangulated mesh that might present regions of high curvature. In this implementation, the only information about the surface geometry is a set of triangles. In order to test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm of surface mesh generation and implementation of the three abstract methods, results of performance and quality of generated triangular element examples are presented.     

TUM.GeoFrame: automated high-order hexahedral mesh generation for shell-like structures

This paper presents a fully automated high-order hexahedral mesh generation algorithm for shell-like structures based on enhanced sweeping methods. Traditional sweeping techniques create all-hexahedral element meshes for solid structures by projecting an initial single surface mesh along a specified trajectory to a specified target surface. The work reported here enhances the traditional method for thin solids by creating conforming high-order all-hexahedral finite element meshes on an enhanced surface model with surfaces intersecting in parallel, perpendicular and skew-angled directions. The new algorithm is based on cheap projection rules separating the original surface model into a set of disjoint single surfaces and a so-called interface skeleton. The core of this process is reshaping the boundary representations of the initial surfaces, generating new sweeping templates along the intersection curves and joining the single swept hex meshes in an independently generated interface mesh.