3-D adaptive FEA with weighted node density technique

Purpose This paper aims to propose a method to create 3-D finite element meshes automatically using the Delaunay tetrahedralization with the weighted node density technique. Using this method, the adaptive finite element analysis (FEA) was carried out for the calculation of the magnetic field of an eddy current verification model to clarify the usefulness of the method. Moreover, the error evaluation function for the adaptive FEA was also discussed. Design/methodology/approach The method to create the 3-D finite element meshes using the Delaunay tetrahedralization is realized by the weighted node density technique, and Zienkiewicz-Zhu’s error estimator is used as the error evaluation function of the adaptive FEA. Findings The magnetic flux density vectors on the node in the error evaluation function for the adaptive FEA should be calculated with the weighted average by the reciprocal of the volume of elements. Originality/value This paper describes the method to create 3-D finite element meshes and the comparison among calculation methods of the magnetic flux density vectors on the node for the error estimator.

Algorithm for Curved Surface Mesh Generation Based on Delaunay Refinement

Curved surface mesh generation is a key step for many areas. Here, a mesh generation algorithm for closed curved surface based on Delaunay refinement is proposed. We focus on improving the shape quality of the meshes generated and making them conform to 2-manifold. The Delaunay tetrahedralization of initial sample is generated first, the initial surface mesh which is a subset of the Delaunay tetrahedralization can be achieved. A triangle is refined by inserting a new point if it is large or of bad quality. For each sample, we also check the triangles that adjoin it whether from a topological disk. If not, the largest triangle will be refined. Finally, the surface mesh is updated after a new point is inserted into the sample. The definition of mesh size function for surface mesh generation is also put in this paper. Meshing experiments of some models demonstrate that the new algorithm is advantageous in generating high quality surface mesh, the count of mesh is suitable and can well approximate the curved surface. The presented method can be used for a wide range of problems including computer graphics, computer vision and finite element method.

CONSTRUCTING CONSTRAINED DELAUNAY TETRAHEDRALIZATIONS OF VOLUMES BOUNDED BY PIECEWISE SMOOTH SURFACES

This article presents an algorithm to construct constrained Delaunay tetrahedralizations of geometric domains bounded by piecewise smooth surfaces. Meshes are built from the bottom-up by first discretizing the boundary curves and then by sampling the smooth surfaces. The sampling procedure refines the Delaunay triangulation restricted to these surfaces, targeting topological violations and poor quality triangles. Unlike previously published algorithms adopting a similar approach, we propose to sample each smooth surface patch independently. This obviates the need for a boundary protection scheme around small dihedral angles in the input and can also lead to coarser constraining triangulations. Starting from a Delaunay tetrahedralization of the point samples, a combination of mesh reconfigurations and vertex insertions is then used to obtain a tetrahedralization constrained to the boundary surfaces. The algorithm is designed to produce tetrahedralizations that can be used in conjunction with a Delaunay refinement algorithm implemented on a Bowyer-Watson framework.