STL Representation of Axisymmetric Solid Element Mesh

Abstract

This paper develops an algorithm for extracting stereolithography (STL) model from axisymmetric solid finite element (FE) mesh, so as to use 3D physical prototype instead of computer graphics-based visualization to express the deformation result of FE simulation. The key of the algorithm is to recognize contour node pairs from an axisymmetric solid element mesh, which exactly demonstrates that the proposed methodology is independent of axisymmetric element configuration, that is to say, it is applicable for either triangular, quadrilateral, or mixed triangular and quadrilateral axisymmetric solid element mesh.