Generation of triangular mesh with specified size by circle packing

Abstract

This paper describes an algorithm for the generation of a finite element mesh with a specified element size over an unbound 2D domain using the advancing front circle packing technique. Unlike the conventional frontal method, the procedure does not start from the object boundary but starts from a convenient point within the open domain. As soon as a circle is added to the generation front, triangular elements are directly generated by properly connecting frontal segments with the centre of the new circle. Circles are packed closely and in contact with the existing circles by an iterative procedure according to the specified size control function. In contrast to other mesh generation schemes, the domain boundary is not considered in the process of circle packing, this reduces a lot of geometrical checks for intersection between frontal segments. If the mesh generation of a physical object is required, the object boundary can be introduced. The boundary recovery procedure is fast and robust by tracing neighbours of triangular elements. The finite element mesh generated by circle packing can also be used through a mapping process to produce parametric surface meshes of the required characteristics. The sizes of circles in the pack are controlled by the principal surface curvatures. Five examples are given to show the effectiveness and robustness of mesh generation and the application of circle packing to mesh generation over curved surfaces. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.