584 research outputs found
Finding Hexahedrizations for Small Quadrangulations of the Sphere
This paper tackles the challenging problem of constrained hexahedral meshing.
An algorithm is introduced to build combinatorial hexahedral meshes whose
boundary facets exactly match a given quadrangulation of the topological
sphere. This algorithm is the first practical solution to the problem. It is
able to compute small hexahedral meshes of quadrangulations for which the
previously known best solutions could only be built by hand or contained
thousands of hexahedra. These challenging quadrangulations include the
boundaries of transition templates that are critical for the success of general
hexahedral meshing algorithms.
The algorithm proposed in this paper is dedicated to building combinatorial
hexahedral meshes of small quadrangulations and ignores the geometrical
problem. The key idea of the method is to exploit the equivalence between quad
flips in the boundary and the insertion of hexahedra glued to this boundary.
The tree of all sequences of flipping operations is explored, searching for a
path that transforms the input quadrangulation Q into a new quadrangulation for
which a hexahedral mesh is known. When a small hexahedral mesh exists, a
sequence transforming Q into the boundary of a cube is found; otherwise, a set
of pre-computed hexahedral meshes is used.
A novel approach to deal with the large number of problem symmetries is
proposed. Combined with an efficient backtracking search, it allows small
shellable hexahedral meshes to be found for all even quadrangulations with up
to 20 quadrangles. All 54,943 such quadrangulations were meshed using no more
than 72 hexahedra. This algorithm is also used to find a construction to fill
arbitrary domains, thereby proving that any ball-shaped domain bounded by n
quadrangles can be meshed with no more than 78 n hexahedra. This very
significantly lowers the previous upper bound of 5396 n.Comment: Accepted for SIGGRAPH 201
Geometrical and topological issues in octree based automatic meshing
Finite element meshes derived automatically from solid models through recursive spatial subdivision schemes (octrees) can be made to inherit the hierarchical structure and the spatial addressability intrinsic to the underlying grid. These two properties, together with the geometric regularity that can also be built into the mesh, make octree based meshes ideally suited for efficient analysis and self-adaptive remeshing and reanalysis. The element decomposition of the octal cells that intersect the boundary of the domain is discussed. The problem, central to octree based meshing, is solved by combining template mapping and element extraction into a procedure that utilizes both constructive solid geometry and boundary representation techniques. Boundary cells that are not intersected by the edge of the domain boundary are easily mapped to predefined element topology. Cells containing edges (and vertices) are first transformed into a planar polyhedron and then triangulated via element extractor. The modeling environments required for the derivation of planar polyhedra and for element extraction are analyzed
All-Hex Meshing of Multiple-Region Domains without Cleanup
AbstractIn this paper, we present a new algorithm for all-hex meshing of domains with multiple regions without post-processing cleanup. Our method starts with a strongly balanced octree. In contrast to snapping the grid points onto the geometric boundaries, we move points a slight distance away from the common boundaries. Then we intersect the moved grid with the geometry. This allows us to avoid creating any flat angles, and we are able to handle two-sided regions and more complex topologies than prior methods. The algorithm is robust and cleanup-free; without the use of any pillowing, swapping, or smoothing. Thus, our simple algorithm is also more predictable than prior art
HybridOctree_Hex: Hybrid Octree-Based Adaptive All-Hexahedral Mesh Generation with Jacobian Control
We present a new software package, "HybridOctree_Hex," for adaptive
all-hexahedral mesh generation based on hybrid octree and quality improvement
with Jacobian control. The proposed HybridOctree_Hex begins by detecting
curvatures and narrow regions of the input boundary to identify key surface
features and initialize an octree structure. Subsequently, a strongly balanced
octree is constructed using the balancing and pairing rules. Inspired by our
earlier preliminary hybrid octree-based work, templates are designed to
guarantee an all-hexahedral dual mesh generation directly from the strongly
balanced octree. With these pre-defined templates, the sophisticated hybrid
octree construction step is skipped to achieve an efficient implementation.
After that, elements outside and around the boundary are removed to create a
core mesh. The boundary points of the core mesh are connected to their
corresponding closest points on the surface to fill the buffer zone and build
the final mesh. Coupled with smart Laplacian smoothing, HybridOctree_Hex takes
advantage of a delicate optimization-based quality improvement method
considering geometric fitting, Jacobian and scaled Jacobian, to achieve a
minimum scaled Jacobian that is higher than . We empirically verify the
robustness and efficiency of our method by running the HybridOctree_Hex
software on dozens of complex 3D models without any manual intervention or
parameter adjustment. We provide the HybridOctree_Hex source code, along with
comprehensive results encompassing the input and output files and statistical
data in the following repository: https://github.com/CMU-CBML/HybridOctree_Hex
As-Built 3D Heritage City Modelling to Support Numerical Structural Analysis: Application to the Assessment of an Archaeological Remain
Terrestrial laser scanning is a widely used technology to digitise archaeological, architectural
and cultural heritage. This allows for modelling the assets’ real condition in comparison with
traditional data acquisition methods. This paper, based on the case study of the basilica in the Baelo
Claudia archaeological ensemble (Tarifa, Spain), justifies the need of accurate heritage modelling
against excessively simplified approaches in order to support structural safety analysis. To do this,
after validating the 3Dmeshing process frompoint cloud data, the semi-automatic digital reconstitution
of the basilica columns is performed. Next, a geometric analysis is conducted to calculate the structural
alterations of the columns. In order to determine the structural performance, focusing both on the
accuracy and suitability of the geometric models, static and modal analyses are carried out by means of
the finite element method (FEM) on three different models for the most unfavourable column in terms
of structural damage: (1) as-built (2) simplified and (3) ideal model without deformations. Finally,
the outcomes show that the as-built modelling enhances the conservation status analysis of the 3D
heritage city (in terms of realistic compliance factor values), although further automation still needs to
be implemented in the modelling process
A hierarchical structure for automatic meshing and adaptive FEM analysis
A new algorithm for generating automatically, from solid models of mechanical parts, finite element meshes that are organized as spatially addressable quaternary trees (for 2-D work) or octal trees (for 3-D work) is discussed. Because such meshes are inherently hierarchical as well as spatially addressable, they permit efficient substructuring techniques to be used for both global analysis and incremental remeshing and reanalysis. The global and incremental techniques are summarized and some results from an experimental closed loop 2-D system in which meshing, analysis, error evaluation, and remeshing and reanalysis are done automatically and adaptively are presented. The implementation of 3-D work is briefly discussed
Optimal Dual Schemes for Adaptive Grid Based Hexmeshing
Hexahedral meshes are an ubiquitous domain for the numerical resolution of
partial differential equations. Computing a pure hexahedral mesh from an
adaptively refined grid is a prominent approach to automatic hexmeshing, and
requires the ability to restore the all hex property around the hanging nodes
that arise at the interface between cells having different size. The most
advanced tools to accomplish this task are based on mesh dualization. These
approaches use topological schemes to regularize the valence of inner vertices
and edges, such that dualizing the grid yields a pure hexahedral mesh. In this
paper we study in detail the dual approach, and propose four main contributions
to it: (i) we enumerate all the possible transitions that dual methods must be
able to handle, showing that prior schemes do not natively cover all of them;
(ii) we show that schemes are internally asymmetric, therefore not only their
implementation is ambiguous, but different implementation choices lead to
hexahedral meshes with different singular structure; (iii) we explore the
combinatorial space of dual schemes, selecting the minimum set that covers all
the possible configurations and also yields the simplest singular structure in
the output hexmesh; (iv) we enlarge the class of adaptive grids that can be
transformed into pure hexahedral meshes, relaxing one of the tight requirements
imposed by previous approaches, and ultimately permitting to obtain much
coarser meshes for same geometric accuracy. Last but not least, for the first
time we make grid-based hexmeshing truly reproducible, releasing our code and
also revealing a conspicuous amount of technical details that were always
overlooked in previous literature, creating an entry barrier that was hard to
overcome for practitioners in the field
Unstructured and semi-structured hexahedral mesh generation methods
Discretization techniques such as the finite element method, the finite volume method or the discontinuous Galerkin method are the most used simulation techniques in ap- plied sciences and technology. These methods rely on a spatial discretization adapted to the geometry and to the prescribed distribution of element size. Several fast and robust algorithms have been developed to generate triangular and tetrahedral meshes. In these methods local connectivity modifications are a crucial step. Nevertheless, in hexahedral meshes the connectivity modifications propagate through the mesh. In this sense, hexahedral meshes are more constrained and therefore, more difficult to gener- ate. However, in many applications such as boundary layers in computational fluid dy- namics or composite material in structural analysis hexahedral meshes are preferred. In this work we present a survey of developed methods for generating structured and unstructured hexahedral meshes.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
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