OceanMesh2D: Precise distance-based two-dimensional automated mesh generation toolbox intended for coast ocean/shallow water flow models

       

OceanMesh2D is a set of open-source MATLAB functions that integrates various approaches and ideas from prior works in order to generate two-dimensional (2D) unstructured meshes for coastal circulation problems. These meshes are based on a variety of feature driven geometric and bathymetric mesh size functions, which are generated according to user-defined parameters. Mesh generation is achieved through a force-balance algorithm combined with a number of topological improvement strategies aimed at improving the worst case triangle quality. Through real world examples, we illustrate the various capabilities of the software and demonstrate how it can produce high quality 2D unstructured meshes that are faithful to a variety of constraints and automatically conform to the complicated shoreline boundaries encountered in the coastal ocean. The software embeds the mesh generation process into an object-orientated framework that contains pre- and post-processing workflows, which makes mesh generation flexible, reproducible, and script-able. The objective of this paper is to introduce the functionality of the software.

Code framework

OceanMesh2D consists of four standalone classes that are called in sequence. It requires no paid toolboxes to build meshes and has been tested to work with a trial version of MATLAB.

OceanMesh2D::
├── geodata -- process geospatial data.
├── edgefx  -- build mesh size functions.
├── meshgen -- generate mesh based on mesh size functions and boundaries.
└── msh     -- store, write, read, inspect, and visualize meshes and their axuillary components for numerical simulation.

Starting Out

Clone or download and unzip the current repository,

Read the user guide available here: https://www.overleaf.com/read/hsqjhvtbkgvj#/54715995/ (dynamic version, click download PDF), or https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21840.61446/1 (static version)

The data for the following examples can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LeQJFKaVCM2K59pKO9jDcB02yjTmJPmL

and here: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/ (download the GSHH global coastline ESRI shapefile zip archive)

and here: ftp://topex.ucsd.edu/pub/srtm15_plus/ (download the SRTM15_PLUS global topobathy DEM "topo15_compressed.nc")

Featured in  ┌╼ Example_1_NZ.m   %<- A simple mesh around South Island New Zealand that uses GSHHS shoreline. 
user guide   ├── Example_2_NY.m   %<- A high-resolution mesh around the New York/Manhattan area that uses a DEM created from LiDAR data.  
             └── Example_3_ECGC.m %<- Builds a mesh for the western North Atlantic with a local high-resolution nest around New York
Featured in         ┌╼ Example_4_PRVI.m %<- Builds a mesh for the western North Atlantic with three high-resolution nests around Peurto Rico and US Virgin Islands
Geoscientific Model ├── Example_5_JBAY.m %<- An extremely high-fidelity (15-m) mesh from LiDAR data around Jamaica Bay with CFL-limiting.
Development paper[1]└── Example_6_GBAY.m %<- An example of the polyline/thalweg mesh size function along the Houston Ship Channel. 

References!

If you make use of OceanMesh2D please include a reference to the following:

[1] - Keith J. Roberts, William J. Pringle, Joannes J. Westerink. 
      OceanMesh2D 1.0: MATLAB-based software for 2D mesh generation used in coastal circulation problems. 
      Geoscientifc Model Development (submitted July 2018).