Meshes#

Author: Jonathan Hargreaves, Amelia Gully

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The mesh is a representation of a domain by unstructured elements and how the mesh is set up is a major factor in how accurate a simulation will be.

  • Element size: smaller elements result in greater accuracy, at the expense of increased computational cost. The process of reducing the element size to increase accuracy is called “h-refinement” (see Figure below).

../_images/geom-and-mesh-mesh-refinement.JPG

Fig. 16 h-refinement. Image produced by: COMSOL.#

Mesh generation is an art in itself. Commercial CA software usually include proprietary mesh generation routines, whereas open-source solvers typically don’t. Here are some open-source meshing solutions you might like to explore: