Aspects of Unstructured Grids and Finite-Volume Solvers for the Euler and Navier-Stokes Equations

One of the major achievements in engineering science has been the development of computer algorithms for solving nonlinear differential equations such as the Navier-Stokes equations. In the past, limited computer resources have motivated the development of efficient numerical schemes in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) utilizing structured meshes. The use of structured meshes greatly simplifies the implementation of CFD algorithms on conventional computers. Unstructured grids on the other hand offer an alternative to modeling complex geometries. Unstructured meshes have irregular connectivity and usually contain combinations of triangles, quadrilaterals, tetrahedra, and hexahedra. The generation and use of unstructured grids poses new challenges in CFD. The purpose of this note is to present recent developments in the unstructured grid generation and flow solution technology

Computational Geometry Column 42

A compendium of thirty previously published open problems in computational geometry is presented.Comment: 7 pages; 72 reference

On Monotone Sequences of Directed Flips, Triangulations of Polyhedra, and Structural Properties of a Directed Flip Graph

This paper studied the geometric and combinatorial aspects of the classical Lawson's flip algorithm in 1972. Let A be a finite set of points in R2, omega be a height function which lifts the vertices of A into R3. Every flip in triangulations of A can be associated with a direction. We first established a relatively obvious relation between monotone sequences of directed flips between triangulations of A and triangulations of the lifted point set of A in R3. We then studied the structural properties of a directed flip graph (a poset) on the set of all triangulations of A. We proved several general properties of this poset which clearly explain when Lawson's algorithm works and why it may fail in general. We further characterised the triangulations which cause failure of Lawson's algorithm, and showed that they must contain redundant interior vertices which are not removable by directed flips. A special case if this result in 3d has been shown by B.Joe in 1989. As an application, we described a simple algorithm to triangulate a special class of 3d non-convex polyhedra. We proved sufficient conditions for the termination of this algorithm and show that it runs in O(n3) time.Comment: 40 pages, 35 figure

Linear Complexity Hexahedral Mesh Generation

We show that any polyhedron forming a topological ball with an even number of quadrilateral sides can be partitioned into O(n) topological cubes, meeting face to face. The result generalizes to non-simply-connected polyhedra satisfying an additional bipartiteness condition. The same techniques can also be used to reduce the geometric version of the hexahedral mesh generation problem to a finite case analysis amenable to machine solution.Comment: 12 pages, 17 figures. A preliminary version of this paper appeared at the 12th ACM Symp. on Computational Geometry. This is the final version, and will appear in a special issue of Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications for papers from SCG '9

Minimum-weight triangulation is NP-hard

A triangulation of a planar point set S is a maximal plane straight-line graph with vertex set S. In the minimum-weight triangulation (MWT) problem, we are looking for a triangulation of a given point set that minimizes the sum of the edge lengths. We prove that the decision version of this problem is NP-hard. We use a reduction from PLANAR-1-IN-3-SAT. The correct working of the gadgets is established with computer assistance, using dynamic programming on polygonal faces, as well as the beta-skeleton heuristic to certify that certain edges belong to the minimum-weight triangulation.Comment: 45 pages (including a technical appendix of 13 pages), 28 figures. This revision contains a few improvements in the expositio

Identifying combinations of tetrahedra into hexahedra: a vertex based strategy

Indirect hex-dominant meshing methods rely on the detection of adjacent tetrahedra an algorithm that performs this identification and builds the set of all possible combinations of tetrahedral elements of an input mesh T into hexahedra, prisms, or pyramids. All identified cells are valid for engineering analysis. First, all combinations of eight/six/five vertices whose connectivity in T matches the connectivity of a hexahedron/prism/pyramid are computed. The subset of tetrahedra of T triangulating each potential cell is then determined. Quality checks allow to early discard poor quality cells and to dramatically improve the efficiency of the method. Each potential hexahedron/prism/pyramid is computed only once. Around 3 millions potential hexahedra are computed in 10 seconds on a laptop. We finally demonstrate that the set of potential hexes built by our algorithm is significantly larger than those built using predefined patterns of subdivision of a hexahedron in tetrahedral elements.Comment: Preprint submitted to CAD (26th IMR special issue

Compatible Paths on Labelled Point Sets

Let P and Q be finite point sets of the same cardinality in R 2 , each labelled from 1 to n. Two noncrossing geometric graphs GP and GQ spanning P and Q, respectively, are called compatible if for every face f in GP , there exists a corresponding face in GQ with the same clockwise ordering of the vertices on its boundary as in f. In particular, GP and GQ must be straightline embeddings of the same connected n-vertex graph G. No polynomial-time algorithm is known for deciding whether two labelled point sets admit compatible geometric graphs. The complexity of the problem is open, even when the graphs are constrained to be triangulations, trees, or simple paths. We give polynomial-time algorithms to find compatible paths or report that none exist in three scenarios: O(n) time for points in convex position; O(n 2 ) time for two simple polygons, where the paths are restricted to remain inside the closed polygons; and O(n 2 log n) time for points in general position if the paths are restricted to be monotonePeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

VoroCrust: Voronoi Meshing Without Clipping

Polyhedral meshes are increasingly becoming an attractive option with particular advantages over traditional meshes for certain applications. What has been missing is a robust polyhedral meshing algorithm that can handle broad classes of domains exhibiting arbitrarily curved boundaries and sharp features. In addition, the power of primal-dual mesh pairs, exemplified by Voronoi-Delaunay meshes, has been recognized as an important ingredient in numerous formulations. The VoroCrust algorithm is the first provably-correct algorithm for conforming polyhedral Voronoi meshing for non-convex and non-manifold domains with guarantees on the quality of both surface and volume elements. A robust refinement process estimates a suitable sizing field that enables the careful placement of Voronoi seeds across the surface circumventing the need for clipping and avoiding its many drawbacks. The algorithm has the flexibility of filling the interior by either structured or random samples, while preserving all sharp features in the output mesh. We demonstrate the capabilities of the algorithm on a variety of models and compare against state-of-the-art polyhedral meshing methods based on clipped Voronoi cells establishing the clear advantage of VoroCrust output.Comment: 18 pages (including appendix), 18 figures. Version without compressed images available on https://www.dropbox.com/s/qc6sot1gaujundy/VoroCrust.pdf. Supplemental materials available on https://www.dropbox.com/s/6p72h1e2ivw6kj3/VoroCrust_supplemental_materials.pd