Finite Element Mesh Editing through CAD Operations

In the process of numerical simulation, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is commonly used for product design optimization. The product model has to be modified according to its associated optimization result obtained based on analysis, and the mesh model needs to be regenerated for analysis to verify the modification. In order to reduce the time for mesh regeneration, one effective way is to directly edit the mesh model according to the modification requirements. In this paper, we present a novel mesh editing method for FE mesh models. The approach achieves the complex and accurate modification on FE mesh models through CAD operations and limits the remeshing to the modified region of the whole mesh model so as to make the approach efficient. Firstly, sweeping operation and Boolean operation are used to construct the new geometry on the mesh model according to the modification requirements, taking the mesh elements as the reference of the operations. Then, mesh geometry fusion is conducted, making the related mesh elements aligned with the intersection lines between the original mesh model and the newly added geometry through node repositioning. Finally, mesh elements for the newly added geometry are generated and optimized. Compared with traditional mesh editing methods, the proposed approach can achieve complex editing of FE mesh model more effectively and efficiently. And the preliminary experimental results show the potentials of the proposed approach.