Quadrilateral finite-element generation and mesh quality control for metal forming simulation

An improved looping method for quadrilateral Þnite element generation, e¤ective especially for automatic metal forming simulation, was presented in this paper. A new splitting criterion to improve the conventional looping method, an artiÞcial boundary scheme to reduce mesh transition regions and an optimal nodal placement scheme to enhance local and global mesh quality were introduced in the standpoint of metal forming engineering. Various application examples were given, which show versatility and applicability of the presented approaches and the developed mesh generator. Application examples including automatic computer simulation of a forging process showed that the presented approaches are powerful for metal forming simulation