Meshpore: A Software Able to Apply Image-Based Meshing Techniques to Anisotropic and Heterogeneous Porous Media

Abstract

Nowadays, powerful numerical codes are available for the simulation of complex configurations such as drying of heterogeneous materials or for scaling methods in porous media. However, these tools are very demanding in relevant finite element description of real structures. A new standalone application, MeshPore, has been developed for this purpose. It allows a comprehensive finite element mesh to be prepared from digital images of heterogeneous and anisotropic products. The most important steps allowed by this application are listed below:

	image segmentation and description of contours by segment chains
	node and point edition (add, delete, move, defined as fixed)
	chain edition (add, delete, close, joint, split)
	add chain type for further control of boundary conditions
	chain re-sampling and orientation for further control of the mesh properties
	mesh generation (the file format is suitable for EasyMesh, developed by Bojan Niceno)
	element edition (material type, local angle and density, spread angle, and material type throughout connex zones).

Finally, some mesh examples are proposed to depict the possibilities offered by this software.

Keywords:

• Porous media
• Anisotropy
• Heterogeneous
• Image
• Meshing techniques
• Drying simulation