Three Dimensional Mesh Generation using a Deltahedral Building Block for Anatomically Accurate Biological Models

2nd Symposium on Trends in Unstructured Mesh Generation, University of Colorado, Boulder, August 1999

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

James Qingyang Zhang
Baystate Technologies, Worcester, MA

John M. Sullivan Jr.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA
sullivan@wpi.edu

Abstract
A fully automatic 3D mesh generation approach is presented. It is capable of describing arbitrary complex geometries exhibiting concave, convex, and planar surfaces. A major advancement in this work is the development of a deltahedral building block for mesh generation. This building block unit creates a higher percentage of regular shaped tetrahedron mesh elements compared to existing strategies. A second critical advancement described herein is our ability to refine locally N levels without reducing the overall mesh quality.

The validity of this new mesh generation strategy and implementation is demonstrated via the numerous anatomically accurate models presented. These models include up to 15 distinct material regions; bone, muscle, adipose tissue, bladder, etc. Within each of these models the arbitrary nature of the physical boundaries is evident. Multiple material boundaries are preserved in each mesh with fidelity.