Robust and efficient Cartesian mesh generation for component-based geometry

M. J. Aftosmis, M. J. Berger, J. E. Melton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This work documents a new method for rapid and robust Cartesian mesh generation for component-based geometry. The new algorithm adopts a novel strategy that first intersects the components to extract the wetted surface before proceeding with volume mesh generation in a second phase. The intersection scheme is based on a robust geometry engine that uses adaptive precision arithmetic and automatically and consistently handles geometric degeneracies with an algorithmic tie-breaking routine. The intersection procedure has worst-case computational complexity of O(N log N) and is demonstrated on test cases with up to 121 overlapping and intersecting components, including a variety of geometric degeneracies. The volume mesh generation takes the intersected surface triangulation as input and generates the mesh through cell division of an initially uniform coarse grid. In refining hexagonal cells to resolve the geometry, the new approach preserves the ability to directionally divide cells that are well aligned with local geometry. The mesh generation scheme has linear asymptotic complexity with memory requirements that total approximately 14-17 words/cell. The mesh generation speed is approximately 106 cells/minute on a typical engineering workstation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)952-960
Number of pages9
JournalAIAA journal
Volume36
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1998

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aerospace Engineering

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