Three-dimensional finite element mesh generation from measured data of a stamping die

An efficient approach was proposed to generate a three-dimensional (3D) finite element mesh system from the measured data of a stamping die, and a computer software was also developed based on the proposed approach in the present study. The concept of a checker with regular grids was used as a template to sort the tremendous number of measured data into a regular pattern with fewer data. The Bezier and B-spline surfaces were then adopted to smooth the data to implicitly represent the stamping die surface, followed by a special procedure to construct the mesh from the treated data. In the developed software, the desired numbers of nodes and elements, aspect ratio, the maximum allowable curvature, and the allowable error can be specified to obtain an optimal mesh system from the measured data. The validity of the proposed approach and the developed software was demonstrated by three examples. The developed software will be of help to the designers of stamping dies.