Finite Element Triangular Mesh Simplification

The Finite Element Method (FEM) is an effective numerical analysis method. It becomesan important part of the technology of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE). As thecomplexity of engineering analysis problems increases, traditional CAD/CAE modellingmethod can not build the object model rapidly. Reverse engineering (RE) is a quick way tobuild mesh, but it generates a large number of low quality elements that are not suit for thefinite flment analysis. So, a simplification process to the original dense mesh is necessary.The object of the simplification is reducing the element number as well as improving thequality of the elements. Besides, to get an accurate compute result in a short time, thesimplified model should reserve the geometry and mechanics features.There are many mesh simplification algorithms, all these algorithms are aimed to cuttingdown original mesh element greatly at the condition of the simplified mesh as much close tothe original mesh as possible. The fidelity is just one of finite element mesh's requests, goodelement shape, mesh adapting and smooth element size transition are more importantcharacters of finite element mesh that must be taken careful consider to in the finite elementmesh simplification process.This paper analyzes some of existing mesh simplification algorithms and proposes anedge collapse mesh simplification algorithm which is adapt to generating simplified finiteelement mesh. To meet various needs of finite element mesh, such as mesh validity, fidelity tooriginal mesh, element shape, element size transition, an integrative solution is presented.Firstly, characters of original mesh are distilled that will be kept during the meshsimplification process, then the algorithm is focus to generating high quality elements. Afterthat, a local mesh densification process and mesh mapping process is executed for meshfidelity. The experiment results show that the finite element mesh simplified by this algorithmhas a high element quality and model characters are effectively kept, which is suit forengineering computation.