How meshes are generated
Compare mapped blocks, advancing fronts, Delaunay and Cartesian workflows.
| Technique | How it builds the grid | Practical trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Mapped / transfinite | Interpolates a structured distribution from compatible edge and face data. | Predictable alignment and spacing. Complex shapes often require careful block decomposition. |
| Delaunay triangulation / tetrahedralization | Uses an empty circumcircle or circumsphere condition, with constraints or recovery for boundaries in practical meshers. | Handles irregular domains. In 3D, Delaunay connectivity alone can still leave sliver tetrahedra. |
| Advancing front | Starts from a discretized boundary and adds elements inward along an active front. | Gives direct control near the boundary. Front collisions and layer-to-core transitions need care. |
| Castellate, snap and layer | Refines a background hex grid, moves points toward the surface, then inserts wall layers. | Scriptable for complex CAD. Inspect geometry capture, skewness and where prism layers were dropped. |
| Poly-hexcore | Uses a predominantly hex core with polyhedral transition cells and optional near-wall prisms. | Can reduce core cell count. Check interfaces and local resolution rather than comparing only total cell counts. |
Curved, high-order elements can be important when using high-order solvers around curved geometry. Check element validity after curving the mesh. Linear surface facets can degrade the effective accuracy of a high-order solution.