DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATIC, 2-DIMENSIONAL FINITE-ELEMENT MESH GENERATOR USING QUADRILATERAL ELEMENTS AND BEZIER CURVE BOUNDARY DEFINITION

This paper describes the development of an automatic, two‐dimensional, quadrilateral element mesh generator. The methodology is based on the looping algorithm developed in part by Dr M. L. C. Sluiter. Bezier curves are used to define the boundaries of the parts to be meshed. The required interaction by the user is reduced to specifying the boundary geometry, the preferred element size and the refinement coefficient. Transition elements are automatically generated between regions of varying element sizes. The ability to offset specified boundary curves insures well‐conditioned elements along the boundary. Meshes for several sample geometries are presented to illustrate the versatility of the mesh generator. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd