An approach to refining three‐dimensional tetrahedral meshes based on Delaunay transformations
- 15 March 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
- Vol. 37 (5) , 793-812
- https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.1620370506
Abstract
A technique for refining three‐dimensional tetrahedral meshes is proposed in this paper. The proposed technique is capable of treating arbitrary unstructured tetrahedral meshes, convex or non‐convex with multiple regions resulting in high quality constrained Delaunay triangulations. The tetrahedra generated are of high quality (nearly equilateral). Sliver tetrahedra, which present a real problem to many algorithms are not produced with the new method. The key to the generation of high quality tetrahedra is the iterative application of a set of topological transformations based on the Voronoi–Delaunay theory and a reposition of nodes technique. The computational requirements of the proposed technique are in linear relationship with the number of nodes and tetrahedra, making it ideal for direct employment in a fully automatic finite element analysis system for 3‐D adaptive mesh refinement. Application to some test problems is presented to show the effectiveness and applicability of the new method.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Delaunay's mesh of a convex polyhedron in dimension d. application to arbitrary polyhedraInternational Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 1992
- On the Maximum Angle Condition for Linear Tetrahedral ElementsSIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 1992
- Three-dimensional automatic adaptive mesh generationIEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 1992
- Adaptive refinement in 2-D finite element applicationsInternational Journal of Numerical Modelling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, 1991
- Finite element Euler computations in three dimensionsInternational Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 1988
- Self-adaptive mesh generation technique for the finite-element methodIEE Proceedings A Physical Science, Measurement and Instrumentation, Management and Education, Reviews, 1987
- Error estimation for automatic adaptive finite element mesh generationIEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 1985
- Adaptive mesh refinement in the finite element computation of magnetic fieldsIEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 1985
- An apporach to automatic three‐dimensional finite element mesh generationInternational Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 1985
- Computing Dirichlet tessellationsThe Computer Journal, 1981