fem_mesh_matlab

MATLAB Toolbox for Handling 2D and 3D FEM Meshes

This MATLAB toolbox offers numerous functionalities for handling 2d and 3d meshes:

• Parse geometry (edge, surface, and volume) - ‘extract_geom.m’
• Plot geometry (edge, surface, volume, normal vector, and tangential vector) - ‘plot_geom.m’
• Assign variables to the vertices of the meshes - ‘extract_data.m’
• Plot variables (scalar variable and vector field) - ‘plot_data.m’
• Integrate variables on the meshes (scalar variable and vector field) - ‘integrate_data.m’
• Interpolate variables on the meshes - ‘interp_data.m’

The toolbox can be used for the following tasks:

• Processing finite element method (FEM) results (e.g. COMSOL, ANSYS, OpenFOAM)
• Handling geographic information system (GIS) data (e.g. digital elevation model)
• Handling additive manufacturing data (e.g. 3d printing)

Examples

The example run_bridge_example.m handles a complex 3d structural analysis:

The example run_simple_example.m uses a simple 2d and 3d electrostatic simulation. This example is used to systemically test/demonstrates the different functions of the toolbox:

Limitations

The following limitations apply to the toolbox:

• For 2d meshes and 3d surfaces, only triangular meshes are supported (no quadrilateral meshes)
• For 3d volumes, only tetrahedral meshes are supported (no hexahedral meshes)
• The integration and interpolation methods are considering linear schemes (no higher-order)
• Probably not scalable to very large meshes (tested with 3.5 million vertices and 7 million triangles)

Compatibility

The toolbox requires the following software packages:

• Tested with MATLAB R2018b
• No toolboxes are required
• Compatibility with GNU Octave not tested but probably slightly problematic

The following software packages are used for generating the data of the examples:

• COMSOL 5.4 for generating the meshes and the solutions
• Inventor 2019 for the CAD drawings

Author

Thomas Guillod - GitHub Profile

License

This project is licensed under the BSD License, see LICENSE.md.