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A methodology for quadrilateral finite element mesh coarsening

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Abstract

High fidelity finite element modeling of continuum mechanics problems often requires using all quadrilateral or all hexahedral meshes. The efficiency of such models is often dependent upon the ability to adapt a mesh to the physics of the phenomena. Adapting a mesh requires the ability to both refine and/or coarsen the mesh. The algorithms available to refine and coarsen triangular and tetrahedral meshes are very robust and efficient. However, the ability to locally and conformally refine or coarsen all quadrilateral and all hexahedral meshes presents many difficulties. Some research has been done on localized conformal refinement of quadrilateral and hexahedral meshes. However, little work has been done on localized conformal coarsening of quadrilateral and hexahedral meshes. A general method which provides both localized conformal coarsening and refinement for quadrilateral meshes is presented in this paper. This method is based on restructuring the mesh with simplex manipulations to the dual of the mesh. In addition, this method appears to be extensible to hexahedral meshes in three dimensions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, MS 0376, Albuquerque, NM, 87185-0376, USA

    Matthew L. Staten

  2. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA

    Steven Benzley

  3. Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES), The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Michael Scott

Authors
  1. Matthew L. Staten
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  2. Steven Benzley
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  3. Michael Scott
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Correspondence to Matthew L. Staten.

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Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

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Staten, M.L., Benzley, S. & Scott, M. A methodology for quadrilateral finite element mesh coarsening. Engineering with Computers 24, 241–251 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-008-0097-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-008-0097-y

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