Small Input Angles Research Articles

A 2D advancing-front Delaunay mesh refinement algorithm

I present a generalization of Chew's first algorithm for Delaunay mesh refinement. I split the line segments of an input planar straight line graph (PSLG) such that the lengths of split segments are asymptotically proportional to the local feature size at their endpoints. By employing prior algorithms, I then refine the truly or constrained Delaunay triangulation of the PSLG by inserting off-center Steiner vertices of “skinny” triangles while prioritizing triangles with shortest edges first. This technique inserts Steiner vertices in an advancing front manner such that we obtain a size-optimal, truly or constrained Delaunay mesh if the desired minimum angle is less than 30° (in the absence of small input angles). This is an improvement over prior algorithms that produce size-optimal meshes with minimum angles of about 26.4° and 28.6° for truly and constrained Delaunay meshes, respectively. Even in the presence of small input angles, the upper bound on the maximum angle is an angle strictly greater than 120° (an improvement from about 137°). The lower bound on the minimum angle in the presence of small angles is identical to prior bounds.

Reprint of: Delaunay refinement algorithms for triangular mesh generation

Delaunay refinement is a technique for generating unstructured meshes of triangles for use in interpolation, the finite element method, and the finite volume method. In theory and practice, meshes produced by Delaunay refinement satisfy guaranteed bounds on angles, edge lengths, the number of triangles, and the grading of triangles from small to large sizes. This article presents an intuitive framework for analyzing Delaunay refinement algorithms that unifies the pioneering mesh generation algorithms of L. Paul Chew and Jim Ruppert, improves the algorithms in several minor ways, and most importantly, helps to solve the difficult problem of meshing nonmanifold domains with small angles.Although small angles inherent in the input geometry cannot be removed, one would like to triangulate a domain without creating any new small angles. Unfortunately, this problem is not always soluble. A compromise is necessary. A Delaunay refinement algorithm is presented that can create a mesh in which most angles are 30° or greater and no angle is smaller than arcsin[(3/2)sin(ϕ/2)]∼(3/4)ϕ, where ϕ⩽60° is the smallest angle separating two segments of the input domain. New angles smaller than 30° appear only near input angles smaller than 60°. In practice, the algorithm's performance is better than these bounds suggest.Another new result is that Ruppert's analysis technique can be used to reanalyze one of Chew's algorithms. Chew proved that his algorithm produces no angle smaller than 30° (barring small input angles), but without any guarantees on grading or number of triangles. He conjectures that his algorithm offers such guarantees. His conjecture is conditionally confirmed here: if the angle bound is relaxed to less than 26.5°, Chew's algorithm produces meshes (of domains without small input angles) that are nicely graded and size-optimal.

Robust Triangulation Algorithm for Geometry with Acute Angle Features

A new algorithm is presented to automatic generate conforming Delaunay triangulation of non-manifold geometric domains with acute angle features. The algorithm is based on Delaunay refinement technique, which often failed to terminate when there are small angles in input geometry. By assigning proper weights to vertices on sharp-angled elements and take place Delaunay triangulation with weighted Delaunay triangulation, the algorithm can accept any inputs without any bound on angle and without setting any protected area and adding any new vertices near the sharp-angled elements. The algorithm also guarantees bounded circumradius to shortest edge length for all elements except the ones near small input angles. The proof of terminator and some computation results are also presented.

Complex conforming Delaunay triangulation

A novel algorithm of conforming Delaunay triangulation for curved geometry is presented in the paper. A progress has been made for the problem puzzled Delaunay refinement where curved constraints cannot be accepted as input directly. The algorithm is based on a new sufficient condition for the existence of constraints in triangulation. It requires computing only the intersection between constraints and Voronoi edges or faces instead of the circum-sphere of curved constraint. For the termination of the algorithm when small input angles exist in constraints, a weighted method is applied to ensure that the algorithm can terminate under any input. Some two-dimensional and three-dimensional results are also presented. It is shown that the algorithm has the capability of dealing with both linear and nonlinear constraints in a consistent way, without the need of maintaining triangular meshes on face constraints.

A generic software design for Delaunay refinement meshing

This paper describes a generic software designed to implement meshing algorithms based on the Delaunay refinement paradigm. Such a meshing algorithm is generally described through a set of rules guiding the refinement of mesh elements. The central item of the software design is a generic class, called a mesher level, that is able to handle one of the rules guiding the refinement process. Several instantiations of the mesher level class can be stacked and tied together to implement the whole refinement process. As shown in this paper, the design is flexible enough to implement all currently known mesh generation algorithms based on Delaunay refinement. In particular it can be used to generate meshes approximating smooth or piecewise smooth surfaces, as well as to mesh three dimensional domains bounded by such surfaces. It also adapts to algorithms handling small input angles and various refinement criteria. This design highly simplifies the task of implementing Delaunay refinement meshing algorithms. It has been used to implemented several meshing algorithms in the Cgal library.

Three-Dimensional Delaunay Mesh Generation

We propose an algorithm to compute a conforming Delaunay mesh of a bounded domain in ${\Bbb R}^3$ specified by a piecewise linear complex. Arbitrarily small input angles are allowed, and the input complex is not required to be a manifold. Our algorithm encloses the input edges with a small buffer zone, a union of balls whose sizes are proportional to the local feature sizes at their centers. In the output mesh, the radius-edge ratio of the tetrahedra outside the buffer zone is bounded by a constant independent of the domain, while that of the tetrahedra inside the buffer zone is bounded by a constant depending on the smallest input angle. Furthermore, the output mesh is graded. Our work is the first that provides quality guarantees for Delaunay meshes in the presence of small input angles.

QUALITY MESHING OF POLYHEDRA WITH SMALL ANGLES

We present an algorithm to compute a Delaunay mesh conforming to a polyhedron possibly with small input angles. The radius-edge ratio of most output tetrahedra are bounded by a constant, except possibly those that are provably close to small angles. Furthermore, the mesh is not unnecessarily dense in the sense that the edge lengths are at least a constant fraction of the local feature sizes at the edge endpoints. This algorithm is simple to implement as it eliminates most of the computation of local feature sizes and explicit protective zones. Our experimental results validate that few skinny tetrahedra remain and they lie close to small acute input angles.

WHEN AND WHY DELAUNAY REFINEMENT ALGORITHMS WORK

An "adaptive" variant of Ruppert's Algorithm for producing quality triangular planar meshes is introduced. The algorithm terminates for arbitrary Planar Straight Line Graph (PSLG) input. The algorithm outputs a Delaunay mesh where no triangle has minimum angle smaller than about 26.45° except "across" from small angles of the input. No angle of the output mesh is smaller than arctan [(sin θ*)/(2-cos θ*)] where θ* is the minimum input angle. Moreover no angle of the mesh is larger than about 137°, independent of small input angles. The adaptive variant is unnecessary when θ* is larger than 36.53°, and thus Ruppert's Algorithm (with concentric shell splitting) can accept input with minimum angle as small as 36.53°. An argument is made for why Ruppert's Algorithm can terminate when the minimum output angle is as large as 30°.

Generating well-shaped d-dimensional Delaunay Meshes

A d-dimensional simplicial mesh is a Delaunay triangulation if the circumsphere of each of its simplices does not contain any vertices inside. A mesh is well shaped if the maximum aspect ratio of all its simplices is bounded from above by a constant. It is a long-term open problem to generate well-shaped d-dimensional Delaunay meshes for a given polyhedral domain. In this paper, we present a refinement-based method that generates well-shaped d-dimensional Delaunay meshes for any PLC domain with no small input angles. Furthermore, we show that the generated well-shaped mesh has O( n) d-simplices, where n is the smallest number of d-simplices of any almost-good meshes for the same domain. Here a mesh is almost-good if each of its simplices has a bounded circumradius to the shortest edge length ratio.

Delaunay refinement algorithms for triangular mesh generation

Delaunay refinement is a technique for generating unstructured meshes of triangles for use in interpolation, the finite element method, and the finite volume method. In theory and practice, meshes produced by Delaunay refinement satisfy guaranteed bounds on angles, edge lengths, the number of triangles, and the grading of triangles from small to large sizes. This article presents an intuitive framework for analyzing Delaunay refinement algorithms that unifies the pioneering mesh generation algorithms of L. Paul Chew and Jim Ruppert, improves the algorithms in several minor ways, and most importantly, helps to solve the difficult problem of meshing nonmanifold domains with small angles. Although small angles inherent in the input geometry cannot be removed, one would like to triangulate a domain without creating any new small angles. Unfortunately, this problem is not always soluble. A compromise is necessary. A Delaunay refinement algorithm is presented that can create a mesh in which most angles are 30° or greater and no angle is smaller than arcsin[( 3 /2) sin(φ/2)]∼( 3 /4)φ , where φ⩽60°is the smallest angle separating two segments of the input domain. New angles smaller than 30° appear only near input angles smaller than 60°. In practice, the algorithm's performance is better than these bounds suggest. Another new result is that Ruppert's analysis technique can be used to reanalyze one of Chew's algorithms. Chew proved that his algorithm produces no angle smaller than 30° (barring small input angles), but without any guarantees on grading or number of triangles. He conjectures that his algorithm offers such guarantees. His conjecture is conditionally confirmed here: if the angle bound is relaxed to less than 26.5°, Chew's algorithm produces meshes (of domains without small input angles) that are nicely graded and size-optimal.

Multiwave-mixing-mediated optical bandpass filter with a thin Kerr medium

A theory for a phase-conjugate bandpass filter based on multiwave-mixing effects in a thin Kerr medium is presented. As a result of the presence of side diffractions, several new features are observed in the power reflectivity, the bandpass, and the central frequency. Aside from a strong dependence on the wave-mixing angle, it is shown that components of different frequencies are generated at different reflected angles; at small input angles the filter can have a wide frequency bandpass with amplified output, and the central frequency is equal to the pump frequency regardless of the ratio of the pump beams.