This second edition is significantly expanded by new material that

discusses recent advances in grid generation technology based on

the numerical solution of Beltrami and diffusion equations in
control metrics. It gives a more detailed and practice-oriented
description of the control metrics for providing the generation of
adaptive, field-aligned, and balanced numerical grids. Some
numerical algorithms are described for generating surface and
domain grids. Applications of the algorithms to the generation of
numerical grids with individual and balanced properties are
demonstrated.

Grid generation codes represent an indispensable tool for solving

field problems in nearly all areas of applied mathematics and
computational physics. The use of these grid codes significantly
enhances the productivity and reliability of the numerical
analysis of problems with complex geometry and complicated
solutions. The science of grid generation is still growing fast;
new developments are continually occurring in the fields of grid
methods, codes, and practical applications. Therefore there exists
an evident need of students, researchers, and practitioners in
applied mathematics for new books which coherently complement the
existing ones with a description of new developments in grid
methods, grid codes, and the concomitant areas of grid technology.

The objective of this book is to give a clear, comprehensive, and

easily learned description of all essential methods of grid
generation technology for two major classes of grids: structured
and unstructured. These classes rely on two somewhat opposite
basic concepts. The basic concept of the former class is adherence
to order and organization, while the latter is prone to the
absence of any restrictions.

The present monograph discusses the current state of the art in

methods of grid generation and describes new directions and new
techniques aimed at the enhancement of the efficiency and
productivity of the grid process. The emphasis is put on
mathematical formulations, explanations, and examples of
various aspects of grid generation.

Special attention is paid to a review of those promising

approaches and methods which have been developed recently and/or
have not been sufficiently covered in other monographs. In
particular, the book includes a stretching method adjusted to the
numerical solution of singularly perturbed equations having large
scale solution variations, e.g. those modeling
high-Reynolds-number flows. A number of functionals related to
conformality, orthogonality, energy, and alignment are described.
The book includes differential and variational techniques for
generating uniform, conformal, and harmonic coordinate
transformations on hypersurfaces for the development of a
comprehensive approach to the construction of both fixed and
adaptive grids in the interior and on the boundary of domains in a
unified manner. The monograph is also concerned with the
description of all essential grid quality measures such as
skewness, curvature, torsion, angle and length values, and
conformality. Emphasis is given to a clear style and new angles of
consideration where it is not intended to include unnecessary
abstractions.

The major area of attention of this book is structured grid

techniques. However, the author has also included an elementary
introduction to basic unstructured approaches to grid generation.
A more detailed description of unstructured grid techniques can be
found in {\it Computational Grids: Adaptation and Solution
Strategies} by G.F. Carey (1997), {\it Delaunay Triangulation and
Meshing} by P.-L. George and H. Borouchaki (1998), and {\it Mesh
Generation Application to Finite Elements} by P.J. Frey and P.-L.
George (2008).

Since grid technology has widespread application to nearly all

field problems, this monograph may have some interest for a broad range
of readers, including teachers, students, researchers, and
practitioners in applied mathematics, mechanics, and physics.

The first chapter gives a general introduction to the subject of grids.

There are two fundamental forms of mesh: structured and
unstructured. Structured grids are commonly obtained by
mapping a standard grid into the physical region with
a transformation from a reference computational
domain. The most popular structured grids are coordinate grids.
The cells of such grids are curvilinear hexahedrons, and
the identification of neighboring points is done by incrementing
coordinate indices. Unstructured grids are composed of cells of
arbitrary shape and, therefore, require the generation of a
connectivity table to allow the identification of neighbors. The
chapter outlines structured, unstructured, and composite grids and
delineates some basic approaches to their generation.
It also includes a description of various types of grid
topology and touches on certain issues of big grid codes.

Chapter 2 deals with some relations, necessary only for grid generation,
connected with and derived from the metric tensors of
coordinate transformations. As an example of an application of
these relations, the chapter presents a technique aimed at
obtaining conservation-law equations in new fixed or
time-dependent coordinates. In the procedures described, the deduction
of the expressions for the transformed equations is
based only on the formula for differentiation of the Jacobian .

Very important issues of grid generation, connected with a

description of grid quality measures in forms
suitable for formulating grid techniques and efficiently analyzing the
necessary mesh properties, are discussed in Chap. 3. The
definitions of the grid quality measures are based on the metric
tensors and on the relations between
the metric elements considered in Chap. 2. Special attention is
paid to the invariants of the metric tensors, which are the
basic elements for the definition of many important grid quality
measures. Clear algebraic and geometric interpretations of the
invariants are presented.

Equations with large variations of the solution, such as those

modeling high-Reynolds-number flows, are one of the most important
areas of the application of adaptive grids and of demonstration of
the efficiency of grid technology. The numerical analysis of such
equations on special grids obtained by a stretching method has a
definite advantage in comparison with the classical analytic
expansion method in that it requires only a minimum knowledge of
the qualitative properties of the physical solution. The fourth
chapter is concerned with the description of such stretching
methods aimed at the numerical analysis of equations with
singularities.

The first part of Chap. 4 acquaints the reader with

various types of singularity arising in solutions to equations
with a small parameter affecting the higher derivatives. The
solutions of these equations undergo large variations in very
small zones, called boundary or interior layers. The chapter
gives a concise description of the qualitative properties of
solutions in boundary and interior layers and an identification
of the invariants governing the location and structure of these layers.
Besides the well-known exponential
layers, three types of power layer which are
common to bisingular problems having complementary
singularities arising from reduced equations, are described. Such
equations are
widespread in applications, for example, in gas dynamics. Simple
examples of one- and two-dimensional problems which realize
different types of boundary and interior layers are
demonstrated, in particular, the exotic case where the interior layer
approaches infinitely close to the boundary as the parameter tends to
zero, so that the interior layer turns out to be a boundary
layer of the reduced problem. This interior layer exhibits one more
phenomenon: it is composed of layers of two basic types,
exponential on one side of the center of the layer and
power-type on the other side.

The second part of Chap. 4 describes a stretching method based on

the application of special nonuniform stretching coordinates in
regions of large variation of the solution. The use of stretching
coordinates is extremly effective for the numerical solution of
problems with boundary and interior layers. The method requires
only a very basic knowledge of the qualitative properties of the
physical solution in the layers. The specification of the
stretching functions is given for each type of basic singularity.
The functions are defined in such a way that the singularities are
automatically smoothed with respect to the new stretching
coordinates. The chapter ends with the description of a procedure
to generate intermediate coordinate transformations which are
suitable for smoothing both exponential and power layers. The
grids derived with such stretching coordinates are often
themselves well adapted to the expected physical features.
Therefore, they make it easier to provide dynamic adaptation by
taking part of the adaptive burden on themselves.

The simplest and fastest technique of grid generation is the

algebraic method based on transfinite interpolation. Chapter 5
describes formulas for general unidirectional transfinite
interpolations. Multidirectional interpolation is defined by
Boolean summation of unidirectional interpolations. The grid lines
across block interfaces can be made completely continuous by using
Lagrange interpolation or to have slope continuity by using the
Hermite technique. Of central importance in transfinite
interpolation are the blending functions (positive univariate
quantities depending only on one chosen coordinate) which provide
the matching of the grid lines at the boundary and interior
surfaces. Detailed relations between the blending functions and
approaches to their specification are discussed in this chapter.
Examples of various types of blending function are reviewed, in
particular, the functions defined through the basic stretching
coordinate transformations for singular layers described in Chap.
4. These transformations are dependent on a small parameter so
that the resulting grid automatically adjusts to the respective
physical parameter, e.g. viscosity, Reynolds number, or shell
thickness, in practical applications. The chapter ends with a
description of a procedure for generating triangular, tetrahedral,
or prismatic grids through the method of transfinite
interpolation.

Chapter 6 is concerned with grid generation

techniques based on the numerical solution of systems of partial
differential equations. Generation of grids from these systems of
equations is largely
based on the numerical solution of elliptic, hyperbolic, and
parabolic equations for the coordinates of grid lines which are
specified on the boundary segments. The elliptic and
parabolic systems reviewed in the chapter provide grid generation
within blocks with specified boundary point distributions.
These systems are also used to smooth algebraic, hyperbolic, and
unstructured grids. A very important role is currently played in grid
codes by a system of Poisson equations defined as
a sum of Laplace equations and control functions. This
system was originally considered by Godunov and Prokopov and further
generalized, developed, and implemented for practical applications
by Thompson, Thames, Mastin, and others. The
chapter describes the properties of the Poisson system and
specifies expressions for the control functions required to construct
nearly orthogonal coordinates at the boundaries. Hyperbolic systems are
useful when an outer boundary is free of specification. The
control of the grid spacing in the hyperbolic method is largely performed
through the specification of volume distribution functions. Special
hyperbolic and elliptic systems are presented for generating
orthogonal and nearly orthogonal coordinate lines, in particular,
those proposed by Ryskin and Leal. The chapter also
reviews some parabolic and high-order systems for the
generation of structured grids.

Effective adaptation is one of the most important requirements

put on grid technology. The basic aim of adaptation is to increase
the accuracy and productivity of the numerical solution of
partial differential equations through a redistribution of the
grid points and refinement of the grid
cells. Chapter 7 describes some basic techniques of dynamic
adaptation. The chapter starts with the equidistribution method,
first suggested in difference form by Boor and further applied and
extended by Dwyer, Kee, Sanders, Yanenko, Liseikin,
Danaev, and others. In this method, the lengths of the cell
edges are defined through a weight function modeling some measure
of the solution error. An interesting fact about the uniform
convergence of the numerical solution of some singularly perturbed
equations on a uniform grid is noted and explained. The chapter
also describes adaptation in the
elliptic method, performed by the control functions. Features and
effects of the control functions are
discussed and the specification of the control functions
used in practical applications is presented. Approaches to the
generation of moving grids for the numerical solution of
nonstationary problems are also reviewed.
The most important feature of a structured grid is the Jacobian
of the coordinate transformation from which the grid is derived.
A method based on the specification of the
values of the Jacobian to keep it positive, developed by Liao,
is presented.

Chapter 8 reviews the developments of variational methods

applied to grid generation. Variational grid generation relies
on functionals related to grid quality: smoothness, orthogonality,
regularity, aspect ratio, adaptivity, etc. By the minimization of
a combination of these functionals, a user can define a
compromise grid with the desired properties. The chapter discusses the
variational approach of error minimization introduced by Morrison
and further developed by Babu\^{s}ka, Tihonov, Yanenko, Liseikin, and
others. Functionals for generating uniform, conformal,
quasiconformal, orthogonal, and adaptive grids, suggested by
Brackbill, Saltzman, Winslow, Godunov, Prokopov, Yanenko, Liseikin,
Liao, Steinberg, Knupp, Roache, and others are also presented.
A variational approach using functionals dependent on invariants
of the metric tensor is also considered. The chapter
discusses a new variational approach for generating harmonic
maps through the minimization of energy functionals, which was
suggested by Dvinsky. Several versions of the functionals
from which harmonic maps can be derived are identified.

Methods developed for the generation of grids on curves and surfaces are
discussed in Chap. 9. The chapter describes the development and
application of hyperbolic, elliptic, and variational techniques
for the generation of grids on parametrically defined curves and surfaces.
The differential approaches are based on the Beltrami equations
proposed by Warsi and Thomas, while the variational methods rely on
functionals of surface grid quality measures. The chapter
includes also a description of the approach to constructing
conformal mappings on surfaces developed by Khamaysen and Mastin.

Chapter 10 is devoted to the author variant of the implementation

of an idea of Eiseman for generating adaptive grids by projecting
quasiuniform grids from monitor hypersurfaces. The monitor
hypersurface is formed as a surface of the values of some vector
function over the physical geometry. The vector function can be a
solution to the problem of interest, a combination of its
components or derivatives, or any other variable quantity that
suitably monitors the way that the behavior of the solution
influences the efficiency of the calculations. For the purpose of
commonality a general approach based on differential and
variational methods for the generation of quasiuniform grids on
arbitrary hypersurfaces is considered. The variational method of
generating quasiuniform grids, developed by the author, is
grounded on the minimization of a generalized functional of grid
smoothness on hypersurfaces, which was introduced for domains by
Brackbill and Saltzman. The chapter also includes an expansion of
the method by introducing more general control metrics in the
physical geometry. The control metrics provide efficient and
straightforwardly defined conditions for various types of grid
adaptation, particularly grid clustering according to given
function values and/or gradients, grid alignment with given vector
fields, and combinations thereof. Using this approach, one can
generate both adaptive and fixed grids in a unified manner, in
arbitrary domains and on their boundaries. This allows code
designers to merge the two tasks of surface grid generation and
volume grid generation into one task while developing a
comprehensive grid generation code.

The subject of unstructured grid generation is discussed in Chap.

11. Unstructured grids may be composed of cells of arbitrary
shape, but they are generally composed of triangles and
tetrahedrons. Tetrahedral grid methods described in the chapter
include Delaunay procedures and the advancing-front method. The
Delaunay approach connects neighboring points (of some previously
defined set of nodes in the region) to form tetrahedral cells in
such a way that the sphere through the vertices of any
tetrahedron does not contain any other points. In the
advancing-front method, the grid is generated by building cells
one at a time, marching from the boundary into the volume by
successively connecting new points to points on the front until
all the unmeshed space is filled with grid cells.

The book ends with a list of references.

The author is greatly thankful to G. Liseikin who prepared the

text of the manuscript in {\LaTeX} code. Thanks go as well to G.
Lukas for correcting the author`s English.

The author is very grateful for the helpful suggestions in the

comments for Chaps 1, 3, and 11 made by E. Ivanov, a leading
expert in up-to-date codes, grid quality measures, and methods for
unstructured grid generation. The author is also greatly obliged
to the researchers who responded to his requests and sent him
their papers, namely, T.J. Baker, D.A. Field, E. Ivanov, P. Knupp,
G. Liao, M.S. Shephard, N.P. Weatherill, and P.P. Zegeling.

The work over the book was supported in part by an Integrated

Grant of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
(2009-2011): Award No 94. Specifically, the efforts related to
computing figures of grids made by A. Kharitonchick, A. Kofanov,
Yu. Likhanova, and I. Vaseva, whom the author thanks very much,
were remunerated by payments from this grant.