Hex-dominant mesh generation using 3D constrained triangulation

Computer Aided Design, Elsevier, Vol 33, Num 3, pp.211-220, March 2001

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

The 8th International Meshing Roundtable Special Issue: Advances in Mesh Generation, Computer Aided Design Volume 33, No. 3, March 2001

Parallel Computing Science Department, Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, MS 0847, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
E-mail: sjowen@sandia.gov

Abstract
A method for decomposing a volume with a prescribed quadrilateral surface mesh, into a hexahedral-dominated mesh is proposed. With this method, known as Hex-Morphing (H-Morph), an initial tetrahedral mesh is provided. Tetrahedra are transformed and combined starting from the boundary and working towards the interior of the volume. The quadrilateral faces of the hexahedra are treated as internal surfaces, which can be recovered using constrained triangulation techniques. Implementation details of the edge and face recovery process are included. Examples and performance of the H-Morph algorithm are also presented.