Mini Glossary of Mesh Generation
- node
- a vertex in the mesh
- element
- a polygonal or polyhedral piece in the mesh;
most often a triangle, quadrilateral, tetrahedron, or hexahedron (brick)
- triangulation
- given a set of points, connect them into a
mesh of triangles
- mesh generation
- given a (typically 2-D or 3-D) domain,
generate nodes and triangulate them to create a mesh
- anisotropic
- not the same in all directions
- anisotropic mesh generation
- uses stretched elements;
desired edge length is a function of orientation;
e.g. doesn't strive for equilateral triangles
- graded mesh generation
- uses elements that vary in size
as a function of position
- structured mesh
- all elements and nodes have the same topology
(i.e. same number of neighbors)
- unstructured mesh
- elements and nodes can have different topology;
e.g. an arbitrary triangular subdivision
- adaptive meshing
- iteratively regenerate mesh and solve FEM
problem, hopefully improving the mesh and the accuracy of the solution
on each iteration
Paul Heckbert