1. Mesh iterators

Feel++ mesh data structure allows to iterate over its entities: elements, faces, edges and points.

The following table describes free-functions that allow to define mesh region over which to operate. MeshType denote the type of mesh passed to the free functions in the table.

MeshType can be a pointer, a shared_pointer or a reference to a mesh type.

For example :

auto mesh = loadMesh( _mesh=Mesh<Simplex<2>>);
auto r1 = elements(mesh); // OK
auto r2 = elements(*mesh); // OK
Table 1. Table of mesh iterators
Type Function Description

elements_t<MeshType>

elements(mesh)

All the elements of a mesh

markedelements_t<MeshType>

markedelements(mesh, id)

All the elements marked by marked id

boundaryelements_t<MeshType>

boundaryelements(mesh)

All the elements of the mesh which share a face with the boundary of the mesh.

internalelements_t<MeshType>

internalelements(mesh)

All the elements of the mesh which share a face with the boundary of the mesh.

pid_faces_t<MeshType>

faces(mesh)

All the faces of the mesh.

markedfaces_t<MeshType>

markedfaces(mesh)

All the faces of the mesh which are marked.

boundaryfaces_t<MeshType>

boundaryfaces(mesh)

All elements that own a topological dimension one below the mesh. For example, if you mesh is a 2D one, boundaryfaces(mesh) will return all the lines (because of dimension \(2-1=1\)). These elements which have one dimension less, are corresponding to the boundary faces.

internalfaces_t<MeshType>

internalfaces(mesh)

All internal faces of the mesh (not on the boundary).

edges_t<MeshType>

edges(mesh)

All the edges of the mesh.

boundaryedges_t<MeshType>

boundaryedges(mesh)

All boundary edges of the mesh.

points_t<MeshType>

points(mesh)

All the points of the mesh.

markedpoints_t<MeshType>

markedpoints(mesh,id)

All the points marked id of mesh.

boundarypoints_t<MeshType>

boundarypoints(mesh)

All boundary points of the mesh.

internalpoints_t<MeshType>

internalpoints(mesh)

All internal points of the mesh(not on the boundary)

Here are some examples on how to use these functionSpace

auto mesh = ...;

auto r1 = elements(mesh);
// iterate over the set of elements local to the process(no ghost cell selected, see next section)
for ( auto const&  e : r2 )
{
  auto const& elt = unwrap_ref( e );
  // work with element elt
  ...
}

auto r2 = markedelements(mesh,"iron");
// iterate over the set of elements marked iron in the mesh
for ( auto const&  e : r2 )
{
  auto const& elt = unwrap_ref( e );
  // work with element elt
  ...
}

auto r3 = boundaryfaces(mesh);
// iterate over the set of faces on the boundary of the mesh
for ( auto const&  e : r3 )
{
  auto const& elt = unwrap_ref( e );
  // work with element elt
  ...
}

auto r4 = markededges(mesh,"line");
// iterate over the set of edges marked "line" in the mesh
for ( auto const&  e : r4 )
{
  auto const& elt = unwrap_ref( e );
  // work with element elt
  ...
}

1.1. Extended set of entities

Feel++ allows also to select an extended sets of entities from the mesh, you can extract entities which belongs to the local process but also ghost entities which satisfy the same property as the local ones.

Actually you can select both or one one of them thanks to the enum data structure entity_process_t which provides the following options

entity_process_t

Description

LOCAL_ONLY

only local entities

GHOST_ONLY

only ghost entities

ALL

both local and ghost entities

Type

Function

Description

ext_elements_t<MeshType>

elements(mesh,entity_process_t)

all the elements of mesh associated to entity_process_t.

ext_elements_t<MeshType>

markedelements(mesh, id, entity_process_t)

all the elements marked id of mesh associated to entity_process_t.

ext_faces_t<MeshType>

faces(mesh,entity_process_t)

all the faces of mesh associated to entity_process_t.

ext_faces_t<MeshType>

markedfaces(mesh, id, entity_process_t)

all the faces marked id of mesh associated to entity_process_t.

ext_edges_t<MeshType>

edges(mesh,entity_process_t)

all the edges of mesh associated to entity_process_t.

ext_edges_t<MeshType>

markededges(mesh, id, entity_process_t)

all the edges marked id of mesh associated to entity_process_t.

The type of the object returned for an entity is always the same, for elements it is ext_elements_t<MeshType> whether the elements are marked or not. The reason is that in fact we have to create a temporary data structure embedded in the range object that stores a reference to the elements which are selected.

Here is how to select both local and ghost elements from a Mesh

auto mesh =...;
auto r = elements(mesh,entity_process_t::ALL);
for (auto const& e : r )
{
  // do something on the local and ghost element
  ...
  // do something special on ghost cells
  if ( unwrap_ref(e).isGhostCell() )
  {...}
}

1.2. Concatenate sets of entities

Denote \(\mathcal{E}_{1}, \ldots ,\mathcal{E}_{n}\) \(n\) disjoints sets of the same type of entities (eg elements, faces,edges or points), \(\cup_{i=1}^{n} \mathcal{E}_i\) with \(\cap_{i=0}^{n} \mathcal{E}_i = \emptyset\).

We wish to concatenate these \(n\) sets. To this end, we use concatenate which takes an arbitrary number of disjoints sets.

#include <feel/feelmesh/concatenate.hpp>
...
auto E_1 = internalfaces(mesh);
auto E_2 = markedfaces(mesh,"Gamma_1");
auto E_3 = markedfaces(mesh,"Gamma_2");
auto newset = concatenate( E_1, E_2, E_3 );
cout << "measure of newset = " << integrate(_range=newset, _expr=cst(1.)).evaluate() << std::endl;

1.3. Compute the complement of a set of entities

Denote \(\mathcal{E}\) a set of entities, eg. the set of all faces (both internal and boundary faces). Denote \(\mathcal{E}_\Gamma\) a set of entities marked by \(\Gamma\). We wish to build \({\Gamma}^c=\mathcal{E}\backslash\Gamma\). To compute the complement, Feel++ provides a complement template function that requires \(\mathcal{E}\) and a predicate that return true if an entity of \(\mathcal{E}\) belongs to \(\Gamma\), false otherwise. The function returns mesh iterators over \(\Gamma^c\).

#include <feel/feelmesh/complement.hpp>
...
auto E = faces(mesh);
// build set of boundary faces, equivalent to boundaryfaces(mesh)
auto bdyfaces = complement(E,[](auto const& e){return e.isOnBoundary()});
cout << "measure of bdyfaces = " << integrate(_range=bdyfaces, _expr=cst(1.)).evaluate() << std::endl;
// should be the same as above
cout << "measure of boundaryfaces = " << integrate(_range=boundaryfaces(mesh), _expr=cst(1.)).evaluate() << std::endl;

1.4. Helper function on entities set

Feel++ provides some helper functions to apply on set of entities. We denote by range_t the type of the entities set.

Table 2. Utility functions

Type

Function

Description

size_type

nelements(range_t,bool)

returns the local number of elements in entities set range_t of bool is false, other the global number which requires communication (default: global number)

WorldComm

worldComm(range_t)

returns the WorldComm associated to the entities set

1.5. Create a new range

A range can be also build directly by the user. This customized range is stored in a std container which contains the c++ references of entity object. We use boost::reference_wrapper for take c++ references and avoid copy of mesh data. All entities enumerated in the range must have same type (elements,faces,edges,points). Below we have an example which select all active elements in mesh for the current partition (i.e. identical to elements(mesh)).

auto mesh = ...;
// define reference entity type
typedef boost::reference_wrapper<typename mesh_type::element_type const> element_ref_type;
// store entities in a vector
typedef std::vector<element_ref_type> cont_range_type;
boost::shared_ptr<cont_range_type> myelts( new cont_range_type );
for (auto const& elt : elements(mesh) )
{
    myelts->push_back(boost::cref(elt));
}
// generate a range object usable in feel++
auto myrange = boost::make_tuple( mpl::size_t<MESH_ELEMENTS>(),
                                  myelts->begin(),myelts->end(),myelts );

Next, this range can be used in feel++ language.

double eval = integrate(_range=myrange,_expr=cst(1.)).evaluate()(0,0);

2. Mesh Markers

Elements and their associated sub-entities can be marked.

A marker is an integer specifying for example a material id, a boundary condition id or some other property associated with the entity.

A dictionary can map string to marker ids.

The dictionary is stored in the Mesh data structures and provides the set of correspondances between strings and ids.

To access a marker, it is necessary to verify that it exists as follows

for( auto const& ewrap : elements(mesh))
{
  auto const& e = unwrap_ref( ewrap );
  if ( e.hasMarker() ) (1)
  {
    std::cout << "Element " << e.id() << " has marker " << e.marker() << std::endl;
  }
  if ( e.hasMarker(5) ) (2)
  {
    std::cout << "Element " << e.id() << " has marker 5 " << e.marker(5) << std::endl;
  }
}
1 check if marker 1 (the default marker) exists, if yes then print it
2 check if marker 5 exists, if yes then print it

3. Concatenate range of iterators

The concatenate function takes a set of iterators over geometrical entities of the same type (e.g. faces, volumes, edges, points). It generates a data structure that will hold the corresponding reference of mesh elements. This data structure can then be used to iterate over meshes like other mesh filters.

example of faces union : internal and marked
// the following code below merges internal faces with inlet faces
auto subset = concatenate( internalfaces(mesh), markedfaces(mesh,"inlet") );
// it can then be used eg to create a submesh
auto submesh = createSubmesh( mesh, subset );
example of elements union touching the boundary with a point, edge or face
auto rangeFaces = boundaryfaces(mesh);
// elts connected by a point
auto range1 = elements(mesh,rangeFaces,ElementsType::MESH_POINTS);
// elts connected by a edge (in 2d correspont to face case)
auto range2= elements(mesh,rangeFaces,ElementsType::MESH_EDGES );
// elts connected by a face
auto range3 = elements(mesh,rangeFaces,ElementsType::MESH_FACES );
auto allelt_touching_the_boundary = concatenate(range1,range2,range3);