Mesh deformation using radial basis functions for gradient-based aerodynamic shape optimization

Gradient-based aerodynamic shape optimization using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and time dependent problems in aeroelasticity, that is, coupled calculations between computational structural mechanics (CSM) and CFD, require repeated deformations of the CFD mesh.An interpolation scheme, based on radial basis functions (RBF), is devised in order to propagate the deformations from the boundaries to the interior of the CFD mesh. This method can lower the computational costs due to the deformation of the mesh, in comparison with the usual Laplace smoothing. Moreover, the algorithm is independent of the mesh connectivities. Therefore, structured and unstructured meshes are equally treated as well as hybrid meshes.The application of this interpolation scheme in problems of aerodynamic shape optimization is also carefully investigated. When the optimization is executed by a gradient-based algorithm the cost function is differentiated with respect to the design parameters in order to obtain the gradient. The gradient is most efficiently and accurately calculated by solving a certain adjoint equation derived from the discretized flow equations. The calculation of the gradient, which is detailed in this presentation, involves the Jacobian matrix of the mesh deformation.Finally, we present the results of an optimization of the ONERA M6 wing at transonic speed using the interpolation algorithm. The results are used for comparison with another technique of mesh deformation. The quality of the mesh obtained by the new algorithm, and the interpolation error, are analyzed with respect to the parameters of the interpolation scheme: the type of RBF, the RBF’s shape parameter, and the sets of control points.     

Template-based quadrilateral mesh generation from imaging data

This paper describes a novel template-based meshing approach for generating good quality quadrilateral meshes from 2D digital images. This approach builds upon an existing image-based mesh generation technique called Imeshp, which enables us to create a segmented triangle mesh from an image without the need for an image segmentation step. Our approach generates a quadrilateral mesh using an indirect scheme, which converts the segmented triangle mesh created by the initial steps of the Imesh technique into a quadrilateral one. The triangle-to-quadrilateral conversion makes use of template meshes of triangles. To ensure good element quality, the conversion step is followed by a smoothing step, which is based on a new optimization-based procedure. We show several examples of meshes generated by our approach, and present a thorough experimental evaluation of the quality of the meshes given as examples.     

Mesh deformation based on radial basis function interpolation

A new mesh movement algorithm for unstructured grids is developed which is based on interpolating displacements of the boundary nodes to the whole mesh with radial basis functions (RBF’s). A small system of equations, only involving the boundary nodes, has to be solved and no grid-connectivity information is needed. The method can handle large mesh deformations caused by translations, rotations and deformations, both for 2D and 3D meshes. However, the performance depends on the used RBF. The best accuracy and robustness with the highest efficiency are obtained with a C² continuous RBF with compact support, closely followed by the thin plate spline. The deformed meshes are suitable for flow computations as is shown by performing calculations around a NACA-0012 airfoil.     

A Colour Interpolation Scheme for Topologically Unrestricted Gradient Meshes

Gradient meshes are a 2D vector graphics primitive where colour is interpolated between mesh vertices. The current implementations of gradient meshes are restricted to rectangular mesh topology. Our new interpolation method relaxes this restriction by supporting arbitrary manifold topology of the input gradient mesh. Our method is based on the Catmull‐Clark subdivision scheme, which is well‐known to support arbitrary mesh topology in 3D. We adapt this scheme to support gradient mesh colour interpolation, adding extensions to handle interpolation of colours of the control points, interpolation only inside the given colour space and emulation of gradient constraints seen in related closed‐form solutions. These extensions make subdivision a viable option for interpolating arbitrary‐topology gradient meshes for 2D vector graphics.     

基于Hermite插值的网格拼接和融合

网格模型的拼接和融合是3维形状编辑和造型中的一个重要方面。基于Hermite插值技术,提出一种适用于具有一般边界点空间分布的三角网格模型之间无缝光滑拼接和融合方法。首先查找网格模型待拼接区域的边缘点集,并利用二次B样条曲线插值边缘点集分别得到边缘曲线;然后对边缘曲线进行Hermite插值得到拼接区域连续曲面;最后对拼接曲面分别进行三角网格化和Laplacian光顺平滑处理以实现网格模型的光滑拼接和融合。由于利用B样条曲线插值待拼接模型边界,本文方法适用于具有各种不同边界情形的网格模型拼接和融合,它不仅仅可以处理平面边界曲线情形也可以处理空间边界曲线情形。结合Hermite曲面插值拼接过渡区域,使得产生的拼接网格能光滑地衔接待拼接模型。实验结果表明,本文方法能够有效地实现三角网格模型的光滑拼接、模型修复和模型融合。     

基于Hermite插值的网格拼接和融合-CIDE2013

网格模型的拼接和融合是3维形状编辑和造型中的一个重要方面。基于Hermite插值技术,提出了一种适用于具有一般边界点空间分布的三角网格模型之间无缝光滑拼接和融合方法。首先查找网格模型待拼接区域的边缘点集,并利用二次B样条曲线插值边缘点集分别得到边缘曲线;然后对边缘曲线进行Hermite插值得到拼接区域连续曲面;最后对拼接曲面分别进行三角网格化和Laplacian光顺平滑处理以实现网格模型的光滑拼接和融合。由于利用B样条曲线插值待拼接模型边界,本文方法适用于具有各种不同边界情形的网格模型拼接和融合,它不仅仅可以处理平面边界曲线情形也可以处理空间边界曲线情形。结合Hermite曲面插值拼接过渡区域,使得产生的拼接网格能光滑地衔接待拼接模型。实验结果表明,本文方法能够有效地实现三角网格模型的光滑拼接、模型修复和模型融合。     

Simple and effective variational optimization of surface and volume triangulations

Optimizing surface and volume triangulations is critical for many advanced numerical simulation applications. We present a variational approach for smoothing triangulated surface and volume meshes to improve their overall mesh qualities. Our method seeks to reduce the discrepancies between the actual elements and ideal reference elements by minimizing two energy functions based on conformal and isometric mappings. We derive simple, closed-form formulas for the values, gradients, and Hessians of these energy functions, which reveal important connections of our method with some well-known concepts and methods in mesh generation and surface parameterization. We then introduce a simple and efficient iterative algorithm for minimizing the energy functions, including a novel asynchronous step-size control scheme. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method experimentally and compare it against Laplacian smoothing and some other mesh smoothing techniques.     

Efficient mesh optimization schemes based on Optimal Delaunay Triangulations

In this paper, several mesh optimization schemes based on Optimal Delaunay Triangulations are developed. High-quality meshes are obtained by minimizing the interpolation error in the weighted L¹ norm. Our schemes are divided into classes of local and global schemes. For local schemes, several old and new schemes, known as mesh smoothing, are derived from our approach. For global schemes, a graph Laplacian is used in a modified Newton iteration to speed up the local approach. Our work provides a mathematical foundation for a number of mesh smoothing schemes often used in practice, and leads to a new global mesh optimization scheme. Numerical experiments indicate that our methods can produce well-shaped triangulations in a robust and efficient way.     

Sketching freeform meshes using graph rotation functions

We present a new approach for sketching free form meshes with topology consistency. Firstly, we interpret the given 2D curve to be the projection of the 3D curve with the minimum curvature. Then we adopt a topology-consistent strategy based on the graph rotation system, to trace the simple faces on the interconnecting 3D curves. With the face tracing algorithm, our system can identify the 3D surfaces automatically. After obtaining the boundary curves for the faces, we apply Delaunay triangulation on these faces. Finally, the shape of the triangle mesh that follows the 3D boundary curves is computed by using harmonic interpolation. Meanwhile our system provides real-time algorithms for both control curve generation and the subsequent surface optimization. With the incorporation of topological manipulation into geometrical modeling, we show that automatically generated models are both beneficial and feasible.     

High-order curvilinear meshing using a thermo-elastic analogy

With high-order methods becoming increasingly popular in both academia and industry, generating curvilinear meshes that align with the boundaries of complex geometries continues to present a significant challenge. Whereas traditional low-order methods use planar-faced elements, high-order methods introduce curvature into elements that may, if added naively, cause the element to self-intersect. Over the last few years, several curvilinear mesh generation techniques have been designed to tackle this issue, utilizing mesh deformation to move the interior nodes of the mesh in order to accommodate curvature at the boundary. Many of these are based on elastic models, where the mesh is treated as a solid body and deformed according to a linear or non-linear stress tensor. However, such methods typically have no explicit control over the validity of the elements in the resulting mesh. In this article, we present an extension of this elastic formulation, whereby a thermal stress term is introduced to ‘heat’ or ‘cool’ elements as they deform. We outline a proof-of-concept implementation and show that the adoption of a thermo-elastic analogy leads to an additional degree of robustness, by considering examples in both two and three dimensions.     

Polynomial surfaces interpolating arbitrary triangulations

Triangular Bezier patches are an important tool for defining smooth surfaces over arbitrary triangular meshes. The previously introduced 4-split method interpolates the vertices of a 2-manifold triangle mesh by a set of tangent plane continuous triangular Bezier patches of degree five. The resulting surface has an explicit closed form representation and is defined locally. In this paper, we introduce a new method for visually smooth interpolation of arbitrary triangle meshes based on a regular 4-split of the domain triangles. Ensuring tangent plane continuity of the surface is not enough for producing an overall fair shape. Interpolation of irregular control-polygons, be that in 1D or in 2D, often yields unwanted undulations. Note that this undulation problem is not particular to parametric interpolation, but also occurs with interpolatory subdivision surfaces. Our new method avoids unwanted undulations by relaxing the constraint of the first derivatives at the input mesh vertices: The tangent directions of the boundary curves at the mesh vertices are now completely free. Irregular triangulations can be handled much better in the sense that unwanted undulations due to flat triangles in the mesh are now avoided.     

Comparison of the meccano method with standard mesh generation techniques

The meccano method is a novel and promising mesh generation technique for simultaneously creating adaptive tetrahedral meshes and volume parameterizations of a complex solid. The method combines several former procedures: a mapping from the meccano boundary to the solid surface, a 3-D local refinement algorithm and a simultaneous mesh untangling and smoothing. In this paper we present the main advantages of our method against other standard mesh generation techniques. We show that our method constructs meshes that can be locally refined using the Kossaczky bisection rule and maintaining a high mesh quality. Finally, we generate volume T-mesh for isogeometric analysis, based on the volume parameterization obtained by the method.     

Silhouette smoothing for real-time rendering of mesh surfaces

Coarse piecewise linear approximation of surfaces causes undesirable polygonal appearance of silhouettes. We present an efficient method for smoothing the silhouettes of coarse triangle meshes using efficient 3D curve reconstruction and simple local re-meshing. It does not assume the availability of a fine mesh and generates only moderate amount of additional data at run time. Furthermore, polygonal feature edges are also smoothed in a unified framework. Our method is based on a novel interpolation scheme over silhouette triangles and this ensures that smooth silhouettes are faithfully reconstructed and always change continuously with respect to continuous movement of the view point or objects. We speed up computation with GPU assistance to achieve real-time rendering of coarse meshes with the smoothed silhouettes. Experiments show that this method outperforms previous methods for silhouette smoothing.     

Generation of triangular mesh with specified size by circle packing

This paper describes an algorithm for the generation of a finite element mesh with a specified element size over an unbound 2D domain using the advancing front circle packing technique. Unlike the conventional frontal method, the procedure does not start from the object boundary but starts from a convenient point within the open domain. As soon as a circle is added to the generation front, triangular elements are directly generated by properly connecting frontal segments with the centre of the new circle. Circles are packed closely and in contact with the existing circles by an iterative procedure according to the specified size control function. In contrast to other mesh generation schemes, the domain boundary is not considered in the process of circle packing, this reduces a lot of geometrical checks for intersection between frontal segments. If the mesh generation of a physical object is required, the object boundary can be introduced. The boundary recovery procedure is fast and robust by tracing neighbours of triangular elements. The finite element mesh generated by circle packing can also be used through a mapping process to produce parametric surface meshes of the required characteristics. The sizes of circles in the pack are controlled by the principal surface curvatures. Five examples are given to show the effectiveness and robustness of mesh generation and the application of circle packing to mesh generation over curved surfaces.     

Interactive mesh cloning driven by boundary loop

In order to copy arbitrary irregular mesh between two models continuously, this paper presents an interactive mesh cloning approach based on pyramid spherical coordinates driven by boundary loop. The approach extends an existing algorithm for computing offset membrane on mesh. A parametric paint brush is constructed to define canvas both on the source mesh and the target mesh. They are mapped onto a 2D parametric domain using discrete geodesic polar maps to register correspondingly. During cloning, the boundary loop of the region of interest (ROI) on the target mesh is fitted in real time by B-spline curve to register the boundary loop of the source ROI. Via the reconstructed boundary loop, the ROI is deformed to register the target mesh by pyramid spherical coordinates to ensure that the clone result is seamless and natural. Our approach can clone arbitrary irregular meshes between two 3D models, even if the mesh is non-manifold. The cloning process is operated in real time by GPU acceleration. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our interactive mesh cloning.     

Generation of anisotropic mesh by ellipse packing over an unbounded domain

With the advance of the finite element method, general fluid dynamic and traffic flow problems with arbitrary boundary definition over an unbounded domain are tackled. This paper describes an algorithm for the generation of anisotropic mesh of variable element size over an unbounded 2D domain by using the advancing front ellipse packing technique. Unlike the conventional frontal method, the procedure does not start from the object boundary but starts from a convenient point within an open domain. The sequence of construction of the packing ellipses is determined by the shortest distance from the fictitious centre in such a way that the generation front is more or less a circular loop with occasional minor concave parts due to element size variation. As soon as an ellipse is added to the generation front, finite elements are directly generated by properly connecting frontal segments with the centre of the new ellipse. Ellipses are packed closely and in contact with the existing ellipses by an iterative procedure according to the specified anisotropic metric tensor. The anisotropic meshes generated by ellipse packing can also be used through a mapping process to produce parametric surface meshes of various characteristics. The size and the orientation of the ellipses in the pack are controlled by the metric tensor as derived from the principal surface curvatures. In contrast to other mesh generation schemes, the domain boundary is not considered in the process of ellipse packing, this reduces a lot of geometrical checks for intersection between frontal segments. Five examples are given to show the effectiveness and robustness of anisotropic mesh generation and the application of ellipse packing to mesh generation over various curved surfaces.     

基于蝶形细分自适应算法的三维地形仿真

基于格网法提出了蝶形细分自适应算法进行三维地形模拟,以原网格顶点的法向量为约束条件,通过对初始三角形控制网格进行多阶曲线迭代插值的非静态细分,实现几何造型.插值点的计算依据网格的局部几何特征,根据三角形网格上顶点的平坦度进行有选择性的自适应细分,同时对细分过程中产生的曲面裂缝加以弥补.地形仿真实例显示新的自适应细分方法可以很好地继承原始网格的形状特征,在曲面的光滑度和真实性上更加完善,加快了图形处理的速度.     

An anisotropic unstructured triangular adaptive mesh algorithm based on error and error gradient information

In this paper, an algorithm based on unstructured triangular meshes using standard refinement patterns for anisotropic adaptive meshes is presented. It consists of three main actions: anisotropic refinement, solution-weighted smoothing and patch unrefinement. Moreover, a hierarchical mesh formulation is used. The main idea is to use the error and error gradient on each mesh element to locally control the anisotropy of the mesh. The proposed algorithm is tested on interpolation and boundary-value problems with a discontinuous solution.     

Finite element mesh deformation with the skeleton-section template

To develop fast finite element (FE) adaptation methods for simulation-driven design optimization, we propose a radial basis functions (RBF) method with a skeleton-section template to globally and locally deform FE meshes of thin-walled beam structures.The skeleton-section template is automatically formulated from the input mesh and serves as a hierarchical parameterization for the FE meshes. With this hierarchical parameterization, both the global and the local geometries of a thin-walled beam can be processed in the same framework, which is of importance for designing engineering components. The curve skeleton of the mesh is constructed with Voronoi decomposition, while the cross-sections are extracted from the mesh based on the curve skeleton.The RBF method is employed to locally and globally deform the mesh model with the cross-sections and the skeleton, respectively. The RBF method solves the spatial deformation field given prescribed deformations at the cross-sections. At the local scale, the user modifies the cross-sections to deform a region of the surface mesh. At the global level, the skeleton is manipulated and its deformation is transferred to all cross-sections to induce the mesh deformation.In order to handle curved mesh models and attain flexible local deformations, the input mesh is embedded into its skeleton frame field using an anisotropic distance metric. In this way, even strip-like features along arbitrary directions can be created on the mesh model using only a few cross-sections as the deformation handles. In addition, form features can be rigidly preserved at both deformation levels.Numerical examples demonstrate that intuitive and qualified FE mesh deformations can be obtained with manipulation of the skeleton-section template.     

边收缩池化的网格变分自编码器

目的 3D形状分析是计算机视觉和图形学的一个重要研究课题。虽然现有方法使用基于图的卷积将基于图像的深度学习推广到3维网格,但缺乏有效的池化操作限制了其网络的学习能力。针对具有相同连通性,但几何形状不同的网格模型数据集,本文利用网格简化的边收缩操作建立网格层次结构,提出了一种新的网格池化操作。方法 本文改进了传统的网格简化方法,以避免生成高度不规则的三角形,利用改进的网格简化方法定义了新的网格池化操作。网格简化的边收缩操作建立的网格层次结构之间存在对应关系,有利于网格池化的定义。新定义的池化操作有效地编码了层次结构中较粗糙和较稠密网格之间的对应关系。最后提出了一种带有边收缩池化和图卷积的变分自编码器（variational auto-encoder,VAE）结构,以探索3D形状的隐空间并用于3D形状的生成。结果 由于引入了新定义的池化操作和图卷积操作,提出的网络结构比原始MeshVAE需要的参数更少,因此可以处理更稠密的网格模型。结论 实验表明提出的方法具有更好的泛化能力,并且在各种应用中更可靠,包括形状生成、形状插值和形状嵌入。