PIMesh: An automatic point cloud and unstructured mesh generation algorithm for meshless methods and finite element analysis–with applications in surgical simulations

We propose a point cloud and mesh generation algorithm, particle injection mesh generator (PIMesh), that can be used to generate optimized high‐quality point clouds and unstructured meshes for domains in any shape with minimum (or even no) user intervention. The domains can be scanned images in OBJ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering Vol. 38; no. 8; pp. e3615 - n/a
Main Authors: Wang, Zhujiang, Srinivasa, Arun R., Reddy, Junuthula N., Dubrowski, Adam
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.08.2022
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:
Airtightness
Algorithms
Bones
Computer graphics
Computer Simulation
Containers
Delaunay triangulation
Domains
Drag
Finite Element Analysis
Finite element method
Mathematical analysis
Mesh generation
Meshless methods
Molecular dynamics
node distributions
Particle injection
point cloud
Simulators
Software
Surgical mesh
surgical simulations
unstructured mesh
meshless methods
Delaunay triangulation
mesh generation
point cloud
finite element analysis
node distributions
unstructured mesh
surgical simulations
ISSN:2040-7939, 2040-7947, 2040-7947
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We propose a point cloud and mesh generation algorithm, particle injection mesh generator (PIMesh), that can be used to generate optimized high‐quality point clouds and unstructured meshes for domains in any shape with minimum (or even no) user intervention. The domains can be scanned images in OBJ format in 2D and 3D or just a line drawing in 2D. Mesh grading can also be easily controlled. The PIMesh is robust and easy to be implemented and is useful for a variety of applications, ranging from generating point clouds for meshless methods, mesh generation for finite element methods, computer graphics applications and surgical simulators. The core idea of the PIMesh is that a mesh domain is considered as an “airtight container” into which particles are “injected” at one or multiple selected interior points. The motion of the particles is controlled by a pseudo‐molecular dynamics (PMD) formulation with a pairwise purely repelling “force” moderated by an absolute velocity dependent drag force. The particles repel each other and occupy the whole domain somewhat like blowing up a balloon. When the container is full of particles and the motion is stopped (the particles can be considered as a point cloud), a Delaunay triangulation algorithm is employed to link the particles together to generate an unstructured mesh. The performance of the PIMesh and the comparison with other unstructured mesh generation approaches are demonstrated through generating node distributions and meshes for several 2D and 3D object domains including a scanned image of bones and others. The PIMesh can be used to automatically generate high‐quality point clouds and 2D (no need for post‐optimization) and 3D isotropic unstructured meshes for domains of any shape. The PIMesh does not require any predefined mesh of node distribution due to the employment of the node flow/dispersion simulation, which is guaranteed to converge, and the node population control algorithm. The PIMesh does not require extensive mathematical descriptions of the domain and is easy to be implemented.
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ISSN:2040-7939
2040-7947
2040-7947
DOI:10.1002/cnm.3615