Automated mesh division of surfaces of solid objects composed of free-form surfaces.

To establish an integrated CAD system for mechanical design, it is important to connect both geometric modeling technigue and automated numerical simulation technique. This report deals with the technique for the automated mesh division of free-form surfaces, because this technique is indispensable to interface between the above-mentioned techniques. The free-form surfaces are bicubic Bezier surfaces, having 4×4 control points. Each Bezier surface, of which the solid object is composed, is divided into individual triangular meshes. When the mesh division for all surfaces is complete, all triangular meshes are assembled into an appropriate form for numerical simulation. Mesh division is carried out as follows : first the bilinear Bezier surface, having 2×2 control points, is divided into triangular meshes using an automated mesh division program for plane figures ; secondly, the generated mesh points are projected to a u-ν parametric plane. Finally these points are reprojected to a bicubic Bezier surfaces.