Generation of finite element mesh with variable size over an unbounded 2D domain

Abstract

With the advance of the finite element, general fluid dynamic and traffic flow problems with arbitrary boundary definition over an unbounded domain are tackled. This paper describes an algorithm for the generation of finite element mesh of variable element size over an unbounded 2D domain by 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 an open domain. The sequence of construction of the packing circles is determined by the shortest distance from the fictitious centre in such a way that the generation front is more or less a circular loop with occasional minor concave parts due to element size variation. As soon as a circle is added to the generation front, finite elements are directly generated by properly connecting frontal segments with the centre of the new circle. 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 with frontal segments, and a linear time complexity for mesh generation can be achieved. In case the boundary of the domain is needed, simply generate an unbounded mesh to cover the entire object. As the element adjacency relationship of the mesh has already been established in the circle packing process, insertion of boundary segments by neighbour tracing is fast and robust. Details of such a boundary recovery procedure are described, and practical meshing problems are given to demonstrate how physical objects are meshed by the unbounded meshing scheme followed by the insertion of domain boundaries. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.