Author(s): Volker Berkhahn; Kai Kaapke; Sebastian Rath; Erik Pasche
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Terrain feature analysis; Breakline identification; Hybrid element meshing scheme; Regular meshes on b-spline surfaces; Irregular triangle meshes
Abstract: In environmental and hydrodynamic engineering analysis, forecasts and assessments traditionally rely on measurements and experiments. In addition to this traditional approach, numerical simulations gained importance in the last decades. These numerical simulations are often based on the methods of finite elements, finite differences or finite volumes. For the application of these methods discrete element meshes of the considered topography are required. With respect to the applied method, these element meshes have to fulfil specific requirements regarding edge ratio, element angles and element size. In practice, these requirements vary between different areas of the domain. Therefore, a hybrid meshing scheme is presented by Rath et al. (2005) with the following key ideas: regular element meshes for river beds and slopes in order to specify edge ratio and element orientation; irregular triangle meshes for forelands. Element meshes have to approximate the topography with sufficient accuracy. All characteristic terrain features with an influence on the hydrodynamic behaviour have to be represented in the element meshes. Rath and Pasche (2004) and Rath et al. (2005) presented slope classification and breakline identification methods in detail. In this contribution the enhancements of these terrain feature analysis and the embedding in the hybrid meshing scheme are explained. The terrain analysis and meshing functionality is implemented in the software tool HybridMesh.
Year: 2005