Feature based quadrilateral mesh generation for sculptured surface products

A successful approach to the generation of quadrilateral surface meshes for finite element analysis of sculptured surface products is presented. The free-form sculpted surface is divided into a feature based product anatomy which is used as the basis for defining regions of simpler shape that are related by the requirement for mesh continuity across their boundaries. Each surface region is meshed using a paving algorithm. Large surface areas are further subdivided to introduce new boundaries which improve control over mesh transitions and element distortion. A procedure, based on this approach, which generates well formed meshes on sculptured surface products is described using a hollow golf club head as an example. The approach is product specific and relies on initial user interaction to populate a feature based product data model. Thus, the data model contains the attributes of a finite element mesh tailored to the product, which can be used to generate meshes on subsequent design iterations or other members of the product family with a high degree of automation, leading to reduced analysis cost.