Shell mesh generation technique reusing proven models by similar sub-part search

This paper proposes an advanced mesh generation technique that reuses the proven analysis models by searching for similar sub-parts. The purpose of this development is to reduce interactive mesh improvement work time and to comply with the mesh specifications. In particular shell mesh generation, working time of complex thin parts such as resin parts is long, which causes issues for front-loading. Furthermore, quality improvement and standardization of analysis models are required because the general designers have to manage V&V (Verification & Validation). This technique consists of two distinctive techniques. First, it is the technique to search the subparts from newly designed CAD which have similar shape with the archived feature sub-parts contained in the proven CAD models. In this technique, the similar sub-parts are retrieved from a CAD model described by boundary representation and made correspondence relation surface pairs of a retrieval model (proven model) and a target model (CAD of new design). A similarity score is calculated based on geometrical similarity and topological similarity. Geometric similarity is based on geometric information such as areas and perimeters. Topological similarity is based on the surface connection differences. Second, mesh can be generated automatically by arranging and merging the know-how meshes based on the relationship of the surfaces by similar sub-parts search technique. Experimental results show that this technique can efficiently generate a mesh without interactive mesh improvement operation which was conventionally taken several hours.