Scientific context

In the numerical simulation process, mesh generation is a crucial and time-consuming step for the engineer. This is particularly true for hexahedral meshes, which are structured in blocks and can take expert engineers several days to generate, using interactive 3D tools that are complex to master. It’s a real challenge for expert engineers to work with interactive 3D tools that are complex to master.

Since hexahedral meshes are still preferred by various computational codes in fluid and solid mechanics, it is crucial to reduce the engineering time spent on generating them. This means developing new automatic or semi-automatic generation methods, setting up tools to diagnose the quality of a mesh according to the code that will use it, and specializing in interactive software to manipulate 3D hexahedral block structures. Faced with this challenge, many new methods have been developed in recent years to generate the desired meshes based on:
• The use of orientation fields;
• Global parameterization methods;
• Polycube construction;
• Manipulation of the dual structure of the mesh;
• Improvement of grid intersection methods;
• Manipulation of hexahedral structure strings and sheets.

In all cases, the problem is related to the global topological structuring of hexahedral meshes. In addition, several open-source software packages now offer functions enabling the scientific community to create their own meshes.

Contents

The aim of this summer school is to provide an overview of the automatic and semi-automatic methods currently used to generate hexahedral meshes for academic and industrial purposes. Starting from CAD-like geometric models as input data, recently developed practical and theoretical methods for generating and manipulating hexahedral meshes will be presented. In particular, the following points will be addressed:
• An overview of existing (semi-)automatic methods for generating hexahedral meshes with associated quality criteria;
• A focus on different representations and methods for generating orientation fields;
• Notions of global parametrizations and their use in meshing;
• Polycube methods;
• Grid intersection methods.
An important part of the course will be devoted to computer-based practical exercises to manipulate these concepts using various software packages, ranging from understanding concepts such as orientation fields to interactive generation of block-structured meshes, via mesh quality assessment.

Practical information

Date

10 juin – 14 juin 2024

Place

Centre Inria à Nancy
We advise participants to find a hotel in the center of Nancy (near the train station) to meet and have dinner together in the evening.

Registration

If you wish to participate, please fill the registration form and send it before 12 mai 2024 at Régis Vizet.

Computer for the practical sessions

Practical session will be done on participant’s laptop. When registering, please contact Franck Ledoux to indicate your operating system, or if you are unable to bring a laptop.

Contacts

Summer schools secretary
Régis Vizet – CEA
tel: 01 69 26 47 45
Fax: 01 69 26 70 05

Coordinators of the computer science 2024 school
Franck Ledoux

Dmitry Sokolov