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Adaptive tetrahedral mesh generation by constrained Delaunay refinement
Author(s) -
Si H.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.2318
Subject(s) - delaunay triangulation , tetrahedron , finite element method , mesh generation , isotropy , triangulation , boundary (topology) , field (mathematics) , laplacian smoothing , mathematics , mathematical optimization , computer science , algorithm , bowyer–watson algorithm , geometry , mathematical analysis , physics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , thermodynamics
This paper presents a tetrahedral mesh generation method for numerically solving partial differential equations using finite element or finite volume methods in three‐dimensional space. The main issues are the mesh quality and mesh size , which directly affect the accuracy of the numerical solution and the computational cost. Two basic problems need to be resolved, namely boundary conformity and field points distribution . The proposed method utilizes a special three‐dimensional triangulation, so‐called constrained Delaunay tetrahedralization to conform the domain boundary and create field points simultaneously. Good quality tetrahedra and graded mesh size can be theoretically guaranteed for a large class of mesh domains. In addition, an isotropic size field associated with the numerical solution can be supplied; the field points will then be distributed according to it. Good mesh size conformity can be achieved for smooth sizing informations. The proposed method has been implemented. Various examples are provided to illustrate its theoretical aspects as well as practical performance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.