Surface Triangulation for Complex Geometries

Numerical Grid Generation in Computational Field Simulations, The International Society of Grid Generation, pp.709-718, September 2000

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to generate unstructured surface meshes for complex geometries with minimum user interventions. The basic method employed here is to apply the advancing front method directly on the surfaces that are defined by CAD (Computer-Aided Design). The key points of this approach is to use geometric features, such as ridges and corner curves of a given geometry, as the initial fronts for the advancing front method. By use of the geometric features, the original configuration is precisely preserved and the surface meshing procedure is significantly simplified. The capability of the method is demonstrated for a configuration of an airplane piggybacked on a rocket booster and an insect model.