Automatic sizing functions for unstructured mesh generation revisited

Abstract

Purpose

Sizing functions are crucial inputs for unstructured mesh generation since they determine the element distributions of resulting meshes to a large extent. Meanwhile, automating the procedure of creating a sizing function is a prerequisite to set up a fully automatic mesh generation pipeline. In this paper, an automatic algorithm is proposed to create a high-quality sizing function for an unstructured surface and volume mesh generation by using a triangular mesh as the background mesh.

Design/methodology/approach

A practically efficient and effective solution is developed by using local operators carefully to re-mesh the tessellation of the input Computer Aided Design (CAD) models. A nonlinear programming (NLP) problem has been formulated to limit the gradient of the sizing function, while in this study, the object function of this NLP is replaced by an analytical equation that predicts the number of elements. For the query of the sizing value, an improved algorithm is developed by using the axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) tree structure.

Findings

The local operations of re-meshing could effectively and efficiently resolve the banding issue caused by using the default tessellation of the model to define a sizing function. Experiments show that the solution of the revised NLP, in most cases, could provide a better solution at the lower cost of computational time. With the help of the AABB tree, the sizing function defined at a surface background mesh can be also used as the input of volume mesh generation.

Originality/value

Theoretical analysis reveals that the construction of the initial sizing function could be reduced to the solution of an optimization problem. The definitions of the banding elements and surface proximity are also given. Under the guidance of this theoretical analysis, re-meshing and ray-casting technologies are well-designed to initial the sizing function. Smoothing with the revised NLP and querying by the AABB tree, the paper provides an automatic method to get a high-quality sizing function for both surface and volume mesh generation.

Citation

Liu, Z., Chen, J., Xia, Y. and Zheng, Y. (2021), "Automatic sizing functions for unstructured mesh generation revisited", Engineering Computations, Vol. 38 No. 10, pp. 3995-4023. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-12-2020-0700