Spatial twist continuum

The spatial twist continuum is a dual representation of an all hexahedral mesh that defines the global connectivity constraint.

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Discovered by Dr. Peter Murdoch in 1995, the spatial twist continuum is used in automatic and semi-automatic mesh generation methods to create all hexahedral meshes for both computational fluid dynamics and finite element method applications.

The name is derived from the description of the surfaces that define the connectivity of the hexahedral elements. The surfaces are arranged in the three principal dimensions such that they form orthogonal intersections that conicide with the centroid of the hexahedral element. They are arranged predominately coplanar to each other in their respective dimensions yet they can twist into the other dimensional planes through transitions. The surfaces are unbroken throughout the entire volume of the mesh hence they are continuums.

References

Murdoch P.; Benzley S.1; Blacker T.; Mitchell S.A. "The spatial twist continuum: A connectivity based method for representing all-hexahedral finite element meshes." Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, Volume 28, Number 2, 15 December 1997, Elsevier, pp. 137-149(13)

Murdoch, Peter and Steven E. Benzley. "The Spatial Twist Continuum." Proceedings, 4th International Meshing Roundtable, Sandia National Laboratories, pp.243-251, October 1995