An Industry Specification for Mesh Generation Software
John P. Steinbrenner, Todd R. Michal, J. Abelanet · 17th AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference · 2005
An application programmers interface (API) was written to facilitate the sharing of unstructured meshing technology among computational analysts developing or requiring meshing methods. The API's architecture consists of a database and a meshing library. The database library owns all mesh data and contains functions for the transfer of data between the mesh library and the application. It also contains functions for dynamic loading of meshing libraries, allowing applications to access multiple meshing libraries simultaneously. The more compact meshing library contains functions to extract the particulars of the library, including run-time parameters, allowable mesh types and available algorithms. Algorithm types are non-specific and may pertain to peripheral mesh operations as well as generation techniques. An example implementation of a database library is included for distribution. Its use markedly reduces the effort required to develop compliant applications or meshing libraries. An example Fortran wrapper library is also provided to allow Fortran applications to access compliant libraries. The API's future viability as a standard for unstructured meshing is dependent on the ability to maintain and extend the API, and to define certification criteria.