Trends in engineering software and hardwareAutomatic mesh generation for three-dimensional solids

Abstract

Current developments on a fully automatic finite element mesh generator for solid finite elements is presented. The technique, referred to as the modified-octree technique, is being designed for use with computer aided design (CAD) systems employing solid geometric model representations. After giving an overview of the technique the paper emphasizes those algorithmic aspects of the mesh generator concerned with improving the resulting finite meshes and how that mesh approximates the original solid geometry. A solid modeler based on superquadrics primitives is used as a test bed for the mesh generator and to generate the example geometries meshed.