Tetrahedral elements are solid finite elements with four triangular faces. Commonly used to model solid
parts, tetrahedral meshes can often be significantly easier to create than hexa-penta models, especially
on complex geometry. With modern finite element solvers, the results from analyses using second
order tetrahedral elements are often just as accurate as those using hex elements.

HyperMesh provides two methods of generating a tetrahedral element mesh. The standard tetramesher
is not discussed in this tutorial. The volume tetra mesher, which is the object of this tutorial, works
directly with surface geometry to automatically generate a tetrahedral mesh without further interaction
from the user. Even with complex geometry, this method can often generate a high quality solid mesh
quickly and easily.

This tutorial introduces some geometry cleanup techniques for tetrameshing using the geom cleanup panel, and presents the volume tetra meshing method in thetetramesh panel. For more information regarding the panels used in this tutorial, please refer to thePanels section of the on-line help, or click

Geometry cleanup for generating a tetrahedral mesh takes a slightly different approach than cleanup for surface meshing. The primary objective is to first create a completely enclosed volume of surfaces, then suppress any unnecessary features that might force the generation of less than optimum elements.

1. From thefiles panel, retrieve the file <install_directory>/tutorials/hm/volume_tetra.hm.
2. Use theDisp page of the macro menu to set Vis opts: 3.
3. Observe the model using the view controls from the permanent menu.

With the geometry now displayed with topology colors, we see there are no free (red) edges in the
model. Since no free edges need to be combined, we only need to look into suppressing edges that
will cause poor element quality.

- From theGeom page, select the geom cleanup panel.
- From theedges sub-panel, select thetoggle function.
- With the line selector active, suppress the edges shown in the figure above.

There are no hard and fast rules defining what should or should not be suppressed. You want to minimize thin, narrow surfaces or surfaces that would otherwise force the formation of small or narrow tria elements.

to preview a mesh on the surfaces. Use your target element size and review areas with a node
density of 1. These are an indication that the feature may be too small for the element size you
plan on using. This helps identify any short surface edges to be suppressed or any fixed points that
should be combined.

The volume tetramesher requires as input a single volume completely enclosed by a single layer of
surfaces. Surface overlaps, T-connections, internal boundaries or holes are not allowed and will result in
errors.