Adaptive Curvature-Sensitive Meshing of the Medial Axis

Proceedings, 10th International Meshing Roundtable, Sandia National Laboratories, pp.155-165, October 7-10 2001

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

10th International Meshing Roundtable
Newport Beach, California, U.S.A.
October 7-10, 2001

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
The Queen's University of Belfast,
Ashby Building, Stranmillis Road,
Belfast, BT9 5AH, Northern Ireland.
Email: pin_yang@qub.ac.uk, c.armstrong@qub.ac.uk
Web: sog1.me.qub.ac.uk/femgroup.html

Abstract
The medial axis transform provides an alternative representation of geometric models that has many useful properties for analysis modelling. Applications include decomposition of general solids into sub regions for mapped meshing, identification of slender regions for dimensional reduction and recognition of small features for suppression. In order to serve these purposes effectively, it is important to approximate the medial axis so that the curvature has been respected. This paper describes a general idea, which is based on equal distance criteria, for adaptive, curvature-sensitive mesh refinement on the medial axis, after its topology has been defined. The completed set of theories and examples for 2-D planar objects and 3-D solid objects are presented.

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