Surface remeshing by local hermite diffuse interpolation

We propose a method to build a three-dimensional adapted surface mesh with respect to a mesh size map driven by surface curvature. The data needed to optimize the mesh have been reduced to an initial mesh. The building of a l ocal geometrical model but continuous over the whole domain is based on a l ocal Hermite diffuse interpolation calculated from the nodes of the initial mesh and from the normal vectors to the surface. The optimization procedur es involve extracting from the surface mesh sets of triangles sharing the s ame node or the same edge and then remeshing the outer contour to a higher criterion (size or shape). These procedures may be used in order to refine or coarsen the mesh but also in a final step to enhance the shape quality o f the elements. Examples demonstrate the ability of the method to create ad apted meshes of complex surfaces while meeting high-quality standards and a good respect of the geometrical surface. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & S ons, Ltd.