This chapter briefly discusses some mesh generation methods which do not belong to the classical methods covered in the previous chapters. The fact that there is such a wide variety of methods is some indication of the richness of the subject but also indicates that there is no one method ^[1] that is a universal solution for all possible situations. Thus, for instance, a semi-automatic method is sometimes more powerful, more flexible or easier to use for some cases compared with a purely classical automatic method. Moreover, some domains are defined by means of data input that is not directly suitable for an automatic approach.

The first section discusses product methods, which represent an elegant meshing method when the geometry of the domain has the required aspect, i.e., a cylindrical analogy in terms of topology. Grid or pattern-based methods are then discussed which complete a mesh of a given domain starting from a given mesh composed of a simple grid or a partition covering the whole domain by means of a predefined pattern which is repeated. Therefore, the grid or the given patterns in the domain (or in a portion of this domain) can be found. A mesh generation method by means of optimization is briefly presented which is capable of handling problems with large deformation (such as forming processes). Moreover, this approach allows for more specific applications.

Constructing a quad mesh (in two dimensions) is then discussed in Sections 8.4 and 8.5 where indirect approaches (by means of...