Octree-Advancing Front Method for Generation of Unstructured Surface and Volume Meshes

Abstract

Amethodisdescribedforthegeneration ofunstructuredgridsforcomplexthree-dimensionalgeometriesincluding multibodydomains.Acombinedoctree-advancing frontmethod ispresentedforgenerationoftheunstructured surface mesh as well as the tetrahedral volume mesh. The unique feature of this generator is that a special octree provides the local length scales of the mesh, which can vary signi® cantly. This octree is automatically created and eliminates the need for a user-constructed background mesh to determine the grid-spacing and stretching parameters. The grid generator isrobust, isgeometry independent, and requires minimal userinteraction. A techniqueis also presented for generation of anisotropic surface meshes that result in a signi® cant reduction in the number of triangular faces. Automatic local remeshing is also employed to improve the quality of the tetrahedral mesh. The geometry independence of the octree-advancing front method is demonstrated through both surface and volume