Generation of Quadrilateral Mesh from Discretized Models

Abstract

Because of the inevitable tedious model repair by using CAD model as the source for mesh generation, an algorithm of generating all-quadrilateral element mesh from discretized models is proposed. By this method, discretized models, such as scattered points or STL file format model, are used as the source for mesh generation, and the original mesh generation paving method is modified to handle discretized models. Several key technologies are presented, the first one is the control of mesh size by using the discretized model as background mesh, the second one is the adjustment of mesh density distribution by mesh refinement and coarsening operation, and the third one is automatic identification of surface features in discretized models and preservation in mesh models. A new method to search intersections between paving boundaries is proposed. The effectiveness of the algorithm and the quality of the mesh generated are demonstrated by using several complex examples.