Hexahedral finite element mesh coarsening using pillowing technique

1. A computer implemented method of coarsening a hexahedral mesh, comprising:

identifying a coarsening region within the hexahedral mesh to be coarsened;

inserting, with a computer, a boundary sheet of hexahedral elements into the hexahedral mesh around the coarsening region;

identifying a plurality of internal sheets of hexahedral elements, of which at least a portion of each of the internal sheets passes through the coarsening region wherein the plurality of internal sheets comprise non-intersecting internal sheets;

identifying columns of hexahedral elements defined by an intersection of the boundary sheet and the plurality of internal sheets;

pairing at least a portion of the plurality of internal sheets based on adjacency of locations of the internal sheets;

collapsing, with the computer, the columns of hexahedral elements to create extraction sheets of hexahedral elements contained within the coarsening region, wherein at least a portion of the columns are collapsed in alternating directions based on the pairing; and

extracting, with the computer, the extraction sheets of hexahedral elements to coarsen the hexahedral mesh within the coarsening region.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the internal sheets span the coarsening region and terminate on a terminal boundary of the hexahedral mesh or on the boundary sheet.

3. The computer implemented method claim 1 , further comprising performing an additional coarsening iteration on the coarsening region by repeating the inserting of a new boundary sheet, the identifying of new internal sheets, the identifying of new columns, the collapsing of the new columns, and the extraction of new extraction sheets.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the coarsening region is localized to less than an entire portion of the hexahedral mesh.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the hexahedral mesh comprises a three-dimensional finite element mesh, wherein the hexahedral mesh includes only hexahedral elements, and wherein the hexahedral mesh comprises a conformal mesh with all mesh nodes forming a corner of a corresponding hexahedral element of the hexahedral mesh.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising saving the hexahedral mesh having fewer hexahedral elements within the coarsening region to a memory device.

7. A non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a computer, will cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

identifying a coarsening region within a hexahedral mesh to be coarsened;

inserting a boundary sheet of hexahedral elements into the hexahedral mesh around the coarsening region;

identifying columns of hexahedral elements defined by intersections of the boundary sheet and internal sheets of hexahedral elements, wherein at least a portion of each of the internal sheets passes through the coarsening region wherein the internal sheets of hexahedral elements comprise non-intersecting internal sheets;

pairing at least a portion of the columns based on adjacency of locations of the internal sheets;

collapsing the columns of hexahedral elements to create extraction sheets of hexahedral elements contained within the coarsening region, wherein at least a portion of the columns are collapsed in alternating directions based on the pairing; and

extracting the extraction sheets of hexahedral elements to coarsen the hexahedral mesh.

8. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the internal sheets span the coarsening region passing through the boundary sheet or terminating on a terminal boundary of the hexahedral mesh.

9. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 7 , further providing instructions that, when executed by the computer, will cause the computer to perform further operations, comprising:

performing an additional coarsening iteration on the coarsening region by repeating the inserting of a new boundary sheet, the identifying of new internal sheets, the identifying of new columns, the collapsing of the new columns, and the extraction of new extraction sheets.

10. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the coarsening region is localized to less than an entire portion of the hexahedral mesh.

11. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the hexahedral mesh comprises a three-dimensional finite element mesh, wherein the hexahedral mesh includes only hexahedral elements, and wherein the hexahedral mesh comprises a conformal mesh with all mesh nodes forming a corner of all spatially adjacent hexahedral elements of the hexahedral mesh.

12. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 7 , further providing instructions that, when executed by the computer, will cause the computer to perform further operations, comprising:

saving the hexahedral mesh having fewer hexahedral elements within the coarsening region to a memory device.

13. A system, comprising:

a processor to execute instructions; and

a memory device coupled to the processor and having the instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processor, will cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

identifying a coarsening region within a hexahedral mesh to be coarsened;

inserting a boundary sheet of hexahedral elements into the hexahedral mesh around the coarsening region;

identifying plurality of internal sheets of hexahedral elements, of which at least a portion of each of the internal sheets passes through the coarsening region wherein the plurality of internal sheets comprise non-intersecting internal sheets;

identifying columns of hexahedral elements defined by an intersection of the boundary sheet and the plurality of internal sheets;

pairing at least a portion of the plurality of internal sheets based on adjacency of locations of the internal sheets;

collapsing the columns of hexahedral elements to create extraction sheets of hexahedral elements contained within the coarsening region, wherein at least a portion of the columns are collapsed in alternating directions based on the pairing; and

extracting the extraction sheet of hexahedral elements to coarsen the hexahedral mesh.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the instructions comprise further instructions, which when executed by the processor, will cause the processor to perform further operations comprising:

performing an additional coarsening iteration on the coarsening region by repeating the inserting of new boundary sheets, the identifying of new internal sheets, the identifying of new columns, the collapsing of the new columns, and the extraction of new extraction sheets.