Automatic metric advancing front triangulation over curved surfaces

A 3D surface mesh generation scheme is suggested for the triangulation of g eneral bivariate surfaces. The target surface to be meshed is represented a s a union of bi-variate subsurfaces and hence a wise range of surfaces can be modelled. different useful features such as repeated curves, crack liens and surface branches are included in the geometrical and topological model s to increase the flexibility of the mesh generation scheme. The surface me tric tensor speciation is employed to define and control the element charac teristics in the mesh generation procedure. A robust metric triangulation k ernel is used for parametric space mesh generation. The shape qualities of the sub-surface meshes generated are then improved by using some ad hoc mes h quality enhancement schemes before they are combined together to form the final mesh. Numerical examples indicate that high quality surface meshes w ith rapid varying element size and stretching characteristics can be genera ted within a reasonable time limit in a few mesh adaptive iterations.