Angle-bounded 2D mesh simplification

Abstract

We describe a method to simplify a 2D triangle mesh through decimation while preserving its quality by means of maintaining a strict lower bound on inner angles. Conformance to boundaries, interfaces, and feature constraints is preserved as well. Multiple options and strategies for the choice of local decimation operators and for the settling of geometric degrees of freedom are proposed and explored. A systematic evaluation leads to a final recommendation for the most beneficial approach. The resulting method enables the efficient generation of more parsimonious meshes than those obtained from existing methods, while exhibiting the same quality in terms of worst element shape, as is relevant, for instance, in finite element analysis and numerical simulation. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.