AUTOMESH‐2D/3D: robust automatic mesh generator for metal forming simulation

Abstract

Meshing and remeshing are often needed to complete a metal forming simulation with a finite element method programme. In order to automate the simulation process and improve the simulation accuracy, an automatic mesh generator, AUTOMESH‐2D/3D, is developed in this paper. The generator can adaptively produce quadrilateral, tetrahedral and hexahedral element meshes based on geometry curvature, thickness, interpolation errors, etc. An improved looping method is used for two‐dimensional quadrilateral and three‐dimensional triangle mesh generation. The tetrahedral and hexahedral element meshes are generated based on the advancing front method and improved grid based method respectively. The mesh generation processes and key technologies are presented in this paper. Many examples of mesh generation with AUTOMESH‐2D/3D are given to demonstrate the robustness of the mesh generator.

Keywords:

• Quadrilateral
• Tetrahedral
• Hexahedral
• Adaptive mesh
• Looping
• Advancing front
• Grid based

This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 50875155 and 50905098) and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Team in University of Ministry of Education of China under grant No. IRT0931.