Volume Mesh Generation

For 3-dimensional solid structural or heat conduction models, the analysis regions are modeled by volume meshes. The solid elements may be tetrahedra, prisms or hexahedra. VisualFEA provides a number of methods for generating volume meshes. They can be classified into the following 3 categories:

There are a few methods in each category, as described in the following sections. The generated volume meshes are always represented only by their surfaces, and their internal meshes are not displayed. The intent is to relieve the complexity of the wireframe re p resenting the mesh. But, the geometry of each element can be displayed individually by a number-related function, which is explained in "Object Selection" section of Chapter 2.

VisualFEA supports 6 types of solid elements, which may be used in volume meshes. In case of surface mesh generation, the element type is always selectable f rom all the available types. For a volume mesh, however, selectable types are limited depending on the method of mesh generation. The types of solid elements are shown in the following table.

< Element types in volume meshes >