Moving curved mesh adaptation for higher-order finite element simulations

作者：Luo Xiao Juan; Shephard Mark S^*; Lee Lie Quan; Ge Lixin; Ng Cho

来源：Engineering with Computers, 2011, 27(1): 41-50.

DOI：10.1007/s00366-010-0179-5

• Mesh adaptation
• Bezier mesh curving
• Higher-order finite elements

Higher-order finite element method requires valid curved meshes in three-dimensional domains to achieve the solution accuracy. When applying adaptive higher-order finite elements in large-scale simulations, complexities that arise include moving the curved mesh adaptation along with the critical domains to achieve computational efficiency. This paper presents a procedure that combines B,zier mesh curving and size-driven mesh adaptation technologies to address those requirements. A moving mesh size field drives a curved mesh modification procedure to generate valid curved meshes that have been successfully analyzed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory researchers to simulate the short-range wakefields in particle accelerators. The analysis results for a 8-cavity cryomodule wakefield demonstrate that valid curvilinear meshes not only make the time-domain simulations more reliable, but also improve the computational efficiency up to 30%. The application of moving curved mesh adaptation to an accelerator cavity coupler shows a tenfold reduction in execution time and memory usage without loss in accuracy as compared to uniformly refined meshes.

• 出版日期2011-1