Automatic mesh generation scheme for a two- or three-dimensional triangular curved surface

Two different methods of automatic mesh generation—the area system and the isoparametric coordinate system—both using quadratic shape function, have been introduced to generate meshes for curved triangular surfaces. Depending on geometrical and material variations, part of the region to be discretized is manually divided into a number of triangular zones. An algorithm is given to generate meshes of triangular elements with three or six nodes automatically using quadratic shape function and area-coordinate system for these zones. Any node number can be assigned to the vertices of a triangular zone. Different zones will be tied together automatically by using a merge algorithm. The application of the volume-coordinate system and quadratic shape function in generating solid elements for triangular prisms will also be discussed.