A Didactic 2D-Mesher Web Application for Definition and Manipulation of Mesh Properties: An Optical Cable Case Study

Abstract

Meshing can be defined as the process of breaking up a physical domain into smaller elements in order to facilitate the numerical solution of a partial differential equation. This process have been automatized through several algorithms under various computational systems to attempt the increasing “push” of meshing technology. In fact, human analysts expect to mesh complex domains constituted of thousands or even millions of elements with low level of interactions. In spite of high transparency, one difficulty arises: how to develop the necessary sensitivity to analyse the relationship between the mesh quality, in global sense, and the element quality, in local sense, with minimal interactions? The aim of this paper is to provide a simple and didactic two dimensional meshing web application (2D-Mesher), that permits the evaluation of a given mesh, concerning its global quality, by operating definition and manipulation over a set of element properties. Thus, the expectation is to contribute to the understanding of the meshing process, and its relevance in numerical solution. The didactic web application was designed in an object oriented fashion and implemented using Java Language, trying to increase the access and to facilitate the ability for meshing construction and analysis. A practical optical cable design analysis is used to demonstrate the process and the application capabilities.