Meshing Technical Notes
To carry out a finite element analysis, the model is divided into a number of small discrete pieces. Meshing is the process of breaking up a physical domain into smaller sub-domains (elements) in order to facilitate the numerical solution of a partial differential equation.
From the bottom-up approach to mesh generation, vertices are meshed first, followed by curves, then surfaces and finally solids. Nodes are placed first at all vertices of the geometry and are then distributed along geometric curves. The result of the curve meshing process provides input to a surface meshing algorithm, where a set of curves define a closed set of surface loops. Decomposing the surface into well-shaped triangles or quadrilaterals is the next phase of the meshing process.
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