Implementation and analysis of a bubble packing method for surface mesh generation

This thesis presents an implementation and analysis of the bubble packing method used for surface mesh generation. The bubble packing method was first proposed by Dr Kenji Shimada in 1993 in his PhD thesis. The method generates a triangle mesh, a set of connected triangles that satisfy requirements of well-shaped triangles, compatible with a given domain, and with controlled node spacing or triangle size. This type of mesh is mainly used in finite element analysis and utilised in many simulations. There has not been much research on the bubble packing method since the 90s. The goal of this thesis is to implement and analyse the bubble packing method in order to create a path for possible future improvements and applicability of this approach to meshing. The approach in this method consists of three stages: placing nodes by spatial subdivision, moving nodes on proximity-based repulsive/attractive internode forces and finally, after nodes reach the required stability, connect nodes to create a set of well-shaped triangles by Delaunay triangulation. The first two stages, placement and movement of nodes, are carried out by placing a spherical region around each node and packing the spheres in the given domain as tightly as possible. The original description of the bubble packing method lacks many important details that are necessary for its practical implementation. This thesis also presents approaches to fill the gaps in the original algorithm so that it can be implemented.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Saurabh Sain