4.3.2017 3.

1GeometricalMeshQuality

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3.1GeometricalMeshQuality
Wellshapedelementsareespeciallyimportantforfiniteelementmethods.Certaingeometricalqualitymeasuresandratioscanbedefinedtoevaluatetheshape
ofanelement.Suchpurelygeometricalcriterialeadbynaturetoanisotropicmeshdensitydistribution.Theyareimplementedwithouttheknowledgeofthe
physicalproblemathand.VarioustypesofnotsowellshapedelementsaredepictedinFig.3.1.

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4.3.2017 3.1GeometricalMeshQuality

Figure3.1:Varioustypesofnotsowellshapedelementsandsomeparameters.

Somesimpleparametersoftrianglesintwodimensionsandtetrahedrainthreedimensionsaretheedgelengths ,(dihedral)angles ,volume ,

circumsphereradius ,insphereradius ,andnormaldistance ofavertexfromitsoppositeedgeortriangle.Theheightofanelementisdefinedas .
Itcanbedesirabletoavoidelementswithatoosmallheightortooobtuse(dihedral)angles.Whilesuchlargeanglesarerelatedtotheerrorofafiniteelement
approximation,smallanglescanhaveanegativeeffectontheconditionnumberofthestiffnessmatrix[5,80].Thefollowingaresomeexamplesforthe
definitionofanelementmeasurewheregreatervaluesof denoteahigherqualityshape.

(3.1)

(3.2)

(3.3)

(3.4)

(3.5)

Tobemorepreciseonehastonotethatnotallofthesedefinitionsprovideawellbehavedqualitymeasureinalldimensions.Forexampleonly satisfy

(3.6)

isactuallytheinvertedaspectratioasitiscommonlydefinedforthreedimensionalelements. hasbeenusedby[8,87]. behaveswellintwo

dimensions,butitisinapttocapturetheshapeofthreedimensionalsliverelementsasdepictedinFig.3.1.Thevolumeofsuchasliverelementcanbemade
arbitrarilysmallwhileatthesametime remainsapositiveconstant.Thedihedralanglesofthesliverelementcanbechangedtothebetterortotheworse

whilethemeasure canbekeptconstant.Onecangraduallytransformawellshapedelementintoasliverelementbymovingonevertexwithoutchanging

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4.3.2017 3.1GeometricalMeshQuality

andhencewithoutchanging .Thisinterestingfactfollowsfromtheimportantrelationbetweentheanglesofanelementandits parameters.

Onlyintwodimensionsitispossibletoderiveaformulafortriangleswhichdescribestherelationbetweentheedgelengthanditsoppositeangle(Fig.3.2and
Fig.3.3).

(3.7)

Figure3.2:Therelationbetweentheedgelength
anditsoppositeangleinatrianglefollowsfrom
and

therefore .

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4.3.2017 3.1GeometricalMeshQuality

Figure3.3:Withconstantedgelengthand
circumsphereradiustheoppositedihedralanglein
atetrahedroncanhavearbitraryvalues.

Assumingthat isconstant,thesmallestanglewillcorrespondtotheshortestedge.Hence,aminimumboundfor alsoisaboundtothesmallestanglein

thetriangle.Lackingthisrelationshipinthreedimensionsmanyqualitycriteriafailtoguaranteeboundeddihedralangles. hasmorethenatureofaone
dimensionalmeasure.Itfailsevenintwodimensionstoavoidbadlyshapedtriangles.Withafixed atrianglemayhaveanyobtuseangle.Itwilldependon
theapplicationwhetherornotanglesareimportantandwhichcriteriaprovetobeuseful.

Animportantconclusioncanbedrawn.Whatevermeansarepursuedtoimprovetheelementquality,theemployedtechniquemustfittotheappliedmeasure.
Otherwiseterminationisnotensured.Ifthenumberofneedlesandcapsshouldbereducedbymeansofrefinementbutthenumberofsliversbylocal
transformations,theformermustbedistinguishedfromthelatter.Therefinementshouldthenbecontrolledbye.g. whichwillnotdetecttheslivers.And

thelocaltransformationscouldbeappliedinafollowingstepforelementswhichdonotcomplywithe.g. .

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