Automatic adaptive finite element mesh generation over arbitrary two-dimensional domain using advancing front technique

Computers and Structures, Pergammon, Vol 71, pp.9-34, 1999

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

Department of Civil Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

E-mail addresses: ccklee@ntu.edu.sg (C.K. Lee), r.e.hobbs@ic.ac.uk (R.E. Hobbs)
Present address: School of Civil and Structural Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798

Abstract
The basic principles for the generation of adaptive finite element meshes over arbitrary two-dimensional domains using the advancing front technique are described. Methods to generate triangular and quadrilateral meshes are also presented. In addition to the description of the mesh generation algorithms, implementation details concerning both the speed and memory requirement are given. Mesh generation examples demonstrate that the proposed mesh generator is capable of discretizing the problem domain into a well-graded, high quality adaptive finite element mesh with element sizes compatible with the user specification. The whole automatic mesh generation program can be run on an IBM PC compatible machine and meshes with up to 9000 elements can be generated within a practical time limit.