Meshing for Curved Surfaces

For curved surfaces, the initial mesh obtained on the surface of a geometry is the same initial mesh generated in accordance with the surface approximation settings. During the meshing process of curved surfaces, first the volumetric mesh is created based on Parasolid triangulation. For Classic and Tau (Strict), the surface triangulations on the volume mesh are very close to the Parasolid triangulation. The approximation can be further improved by modifying surface approximation settings. As the mesh is adapted and refined, new mesh points are added to the surface mesh. If the solution is rectilinear, these points are added to the faceted representation of the curved surfaces. On the other hand, if the solution is curvilinear, then newly added points are used to improve the curved surface representation in the mesh. The process of applying curvilinear elements is often referred to as “pulling points to the true surface,” which essentially means that edges of the triangulated facets are moved closer to the true surface, resulting in accurate representation of the curved surface.