High-order curvilinear meshing using a thermo-elastic analogy
Comput. Aided Design, vol. 72, pp. 130–139 (2016)
@article{moxey-2016a,
title = {High-order curvilinear meshing using a thermo-elastic analogy},
author = {Moxey, D. and Ekelschot, D. and Keskin, {\"U}. and Sherwin, S. J. and Peir{\'o}, J.},
journal = cad,
volume = {72},
pages = {130--139},
year = {2016},
url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010448515001530},
doi = {10.1016/j.cad.2015.09.007},
abstract = {With high-order methods becoming increasingly popular in both academia and industry, generating curvilinear meshes that align with the boundaries of complex geometries continues to present a significant challenge. Whereas traditional low-order methods use planar-faced elements, high-order methods introduce curvature into elements that may, if added naively, cause the element to self-intersect. Over the last few years, several curvilinear mesh generation techniques have been designed to tackle this issue, utilising mesh deformation to move the interior nodes of the mesh in order to accommodate curvature at the boundary. Many of these are based on elastic models, where the mesh is treated as a solid body and deformed according to a linear or non-linear stress tensor. However, such methods typically have no explicit control over the validity of the elements in the resulting mesh. In this article, we present an extension of this elastic formulation, whereby a thermal stress term is introduced to `heat' or `cool' elements as they deform. We outline a proof-of-concept implementation and show that the adoption of a thermo-elastic analogy leads to an additional degree of robustness, by considering examples in both two and three dimensions.}
}
Bending a mesh so that it follows a curved boundary can make elements fold through themselves. Deformation methods treat the mesh as an elastic solid to carry the curvature inwards, but give no explicit control over whether the result is valid. This paper adds a thermal stress term that in effect heats or cools elements as they deform, and shows on two- and three- dimensional examples that this makes the process more robust.
Abstract
With high-order methods becoming increasingly popular in both academia and industry, generating curvilinear meshes that align with the boundaries of complex geometries continues to present a significant challenge. Whereas traditional low-order methods use planar-faced elements, high-order methods introduce curvature into elements that may, if added naively, cause the element to self-intersect. Over the last few years, several curvilinear mesh generation techniques have been designed to tackle this issue, utilising mesh deformation to move the interior nodes of the mesh in order to accommodate curvature at the boundary. Many of these are based on elastic models, where the mesh is treated as a solid body and deformed according to a linear or non-linear stress tensor. However, such methods typically have no explicit control over the validity of the elements in the resulting mesh. In this article, we present an extension of this elastic formulation, whereby a thermal stress term is introduced to ‘heat’ or ‘cool’ elements as they deform. We outline a proof-of-concept implementation and show that the adoption of a thermo-elastic analogy leads to an additional degree of robustness, by considering examples in both two and three dimensions.