When Mesh Generators Require Enhancements

Proceedings, 7th International Meshing Roundtable, Sandia National Lab, pp.525-537, October 1998

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

7th International Meshing Roundtable
October 26-28, 1998
Dearborn, Michigan, USA

Gregory J. Elbert
Midsize Car Division Headquaters
Mail Code: 480-210-152
General Motors Corporation
300001 Van Dyke Avenue
Box 9020
Warren, MI 48090-9020
Email: lzxbsv@hqs.mid.gmeds.corn

David A. Field and William H. Frey
Research and Development Center
mail Code: 480-106-28S
General Motors Corporation
30500 Mound Road
ML 48090-9055
Email: aes4ur@dafma.gmr.com, frey@.gmr.com

Abstract
Advances in automatic mesh generation have made the generation of finite element meshes easily available. Commercial mesh generators can create two dimensional meshes composed of triangles and quadrilaterals on simple planar polygons or complex three dimensional meshes of tetrahedra and hexahedra. However, they do not always work properly or guarantee adequate element quality. Due to the inability of a commercial preprocesser to correctly develop a mesh, this paper relates a revisit to triangular meshes on simple planar polygons. This return to basics led to new measures and visualizations of the quality of meshes and to the use of mesh relaxation, a method of improving initial two dimensional triangulations. Ultimately more than one hundred thousand elements were created in less than two minutes.