2D Image-based higher-order meshing for 3D modelling in MATLAB

Abstract We present a higher-order meshing technique to 3D modelling applications from 2D images. This method uses 2D images that are converted to 3D stereolithography files on which tetrahedral meshes of higher order are developed. The resulting 3D meshed structures find several applications in Computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis problems. The generateMesh is the initial mesh used by the presented mesh generator, which is a MATLAB function from the PDE Toolbox. The required inputs for the mesh generator are stereolithography file and mesh edge length upper bound of the 3D structure. A higher-order tetrahedral mesh, connectivity matrix, node coordinates, and nodes lying on the border are the results we get from the presented work. For many finite element analysis problems, the outcomes obtained from the presented mesh generator can be used very efficiently to enhance the numerical results. In medical simulation, photogrammetric fields, material engineering, computational materials science, computational electromagnetics, etc., this method can be used.