Graph-based midsurface extraction for finite element analysis

The geometry of CAD model needs to be idealized in order to reduce the complexity of the finite element model. A thin solid model should be abstracted to midsurface model. This paper describes a graph-based method that extracts midsurface patches from solid model and joins them automatically. Face-pairs are first found by ray-casting process, and midsurface patches are generated by geometric interpolation of them. During this process, a graph which contains mapping information of face-pairs and midsurface patches is generated. Using this graph, midsurface patches are extended, trimmed and joined to generate a complete midsurface model. In this paper, a concrete method of midsurface patch connection which is not handled in the previous researches is proposed.