This paper on "Intelligent Mesh Design for Boundary and Finite Elements" was presented at the International Conference on Quality Assurance and Standards in Finite Element Analysis - 22-25 May 1989, Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Summary

The key tasks in the problem solving process for engineering analysis are the creation of an idealised model, the selection of the analysis technique and the choice of element discretisation if finite or boundary clement methods are to be used.
This paper describes a knowledge based expert system which has been developed to automatically design the element discretization to achieve a specified level of accuracy. The initial version of the system described in this paper has been designed to produce meshes suitable for boundary element analysis but this boundary discretisation can be used as an initial guide for the creation of the finite clement mesh.
The paper also describes a systematic approach for determining the rules necessary to capture the geometric features and to relate the features to the size and number of elements required.
Examples of the application of the system arc described.