This paper presents an automated tool for local, conformal refinement of all-hexahedral meshes based on the insertion of multidirectional twist planes into the spatial twist continuum. The refinement process is divided into independent refinement steps. In each step, an inserted twist plane modifies a single sheet or two parallel hex sheets. Six basic templates, chosen and oriented based on the number of nodes selected for refinement, replace original mesh elements. The contributions of this work are (1) the localized refinement of mesh regions defined by individual or groups of nodes, element edges, element faces or whole elements within an all-hexahedral mesh, (2) the simplification of template-based refinement into a general method and (3) the use of hex sheets for the management of template insertion in multi-directional refinement.
Nathan J. Harris, Steven E. Benzley, Steven J. Owe