Mesher module

[ajafarihub]

Currently, the structure module handles/defines a structural mechanics problem as a whole: geometry, mesh, BCs and loadings. For a QS (quasi-static) problem - of course - these are all relevant and needed. Nevertheless, this can be sometimes unnecessary; e.g. for a purely-static problem like homogenization only a mesh (and geometry) are required to be specified. So, having two separate modules as follows looks more flexible:

• mesher: only dealing with the geometry and mesh (possibly based on meshes built up elsewhere and stored in *.xdmf file),
• structure: defining meaningful BCs and loadings for a given mesh (coming from the mesher module) towards specific structural problems; e.g. 3-point bending, 1-D compression, etc.

This separation also has another benefit: a mesh should not be re-built for various BCs/loading scenarios that are tried for a certain geometry/mesh. For simple meshes it is indeed not a big deal. However, for large meshes and those that are possibly generated elsewhere and available for the user, the meshing part can be easily skipped.