MESH GENERATION OVER CURVED SURFACES WITH EXPLICIT CONTROL ON DISCRETIZATION ERROR

A scheme is presented for the automatic generation of triangular meshe s over general analytical curved surfaces with explicit control on the discretization error over the interior of the domain. The element siz e on the curved surface is estimated based on the given allowable disc retization error and the surface curvature. The mesh generation starts with the subdivision of the curved boundary of the domain into straig ht line segments in compliance with the given discretization error con straint. Elements are generated directly over the surface in such a wa y that the discretization error is kept within the required geometrica l tolerance. Those elements violating the given constraint are noted a nd post-processed by either element subdivision or node repositioning. Various schemes as to how improvement should be made are proposed whi ch reduce the discretization error by different strategies depending o n the position of the point where the maximum discretization error occ urs.