Quadtree/Octree Meshing with Adaptive Analysis

Numerical Grid Generation in Computational Fluid Mechanics `88, Pineridge Press, pp.633-642, 1988

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

in proceedings:
Numerical Grid Generation in Computational Fluid Mechanics '88, Edited by S. Sengupta, J. Hauser, P.R. Eiseman, J. F. Thompson.
Copyright 1988 Pineridge Press
ISBN 0-906674-68-9

GE Corporate Research and Development, Solid Mechanics Program, Schenectady, NY

Abstract
Two key technologies in automating the finite element analysis process are fully automatic mesh generation and adaptive analysis. Given a problem formulated on a basis, this paper describes a mesh generation algorithm based on recursive spatial decomposition (quadtree/octree) combined with a Delaunay triangulation scheme. This powerful combination results in a mesh generator capable of support many advanced features which heretofore were not possible in other automatic mesh generation schemes. Once the mesh has been generated, the analysis proceeds adaptively by iteratively estimating error and improving the mesh quality by using a combined h-r strategy. Some example results are shown to illustrate these approaches.