Accurate and efficient numerical solution of partial differential equations requires well-formed meshes that are non-inverted, smooth, well-shaped, oriented, and size-adapted.
The Mesquite mesh quality improvement toolkit is a software library that applies a variety of optimization algorithms to create well-formed meshes via node-movement. Mesquite can be run stand-alone using drivers or called directly from an application code. Mesquite development is supported through the SciDAC Interoperable Tools for Advanced Petascale Simulations (ITAPS, formerly TSTT) Enabling Technology Center. Mesquite has found applications in accelerator design, computational MHD, climate, spectral element calculations for fluids, biology, and rocket propellant burn simulations
Mesquite plays an essential role in the SLAC accelerator design program where it will be used in SciDAC-II in design optimization studies to smoothly deform meshes in response to changes in accelerator cavity design parameters. Additionally, Mesquite will play a role in solving the inverse problem that arises in tuning cavity performance to overcome manufacturing defects and variability. Major Mesquite requirements are (i) smooth mesh deformation resulting in non-inverted elements, and (ii) fast, large-scale mesh optimization on parallel platforms (NERSC). Prototype simulations on the International Linear Collider (ILC) cavity have successfully demonstrated these capabilities .
In SciDAC-II, Mesquite will be used to improve mesh quality on fusion simulations at PPPL.