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findElements

Find mesh elements in specified region

Description

example

elemIDs = findElements(mesh,"region",RegionType,RegionID) returns the IDs of the mesh elements that belong to the specified geometric region.

elemIDs = findElements(mesh,"box",xlim,ylim) returns the IDs of the mesh elements within a bounding box specified by xlim and ylim. Use this syntax for 2-D meshes.

example

elemIDs = findElements(mesh,"box",xlim,ylim,zlim) returns the IDs of the mesh elements located within a bounding box specified by xlim, ylim, and zlim. Use this syntax for 3-D meshes.

example

elemIDs = findElements(mesh,"radius",center,radius) returns the IDs of mesh elements located within a circle (for 2-D meshes) or sphere (for 3-D meshes) specified by center and radius.

example

elemIDs = findElements(mesh,"attached",nodeID) returns the IDs of the mesh elements attached to the specified node. Here, nodeID is the ID of a corner node. This syntax ignores the IDs of the nodes located in the middle of element edges.

For multiple nodes, specify nodeID as a vector.

Examples

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Find the elements associated with a geometric region.

Create a PDE model.

model = createpde;

Include the geometry of the built-in function lshapeg. Plot the geometry.

geometryFromEdges(model,@lshapeg);
pdegplot(model,FaceLabels="on",EdgeLabels="on")

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 14 objects of type line, text.

Generate a mesh.

mesh = generateMesh(model,Hmax=0.5);

Find the elements associated with face 2.

Ef2 = findElements(mesh,"region",Face=2);

Highlight these elements in green on the mesh plot.

figure
pdemesh(mesh,ElementLabels="on")
hold on
pdemesh(mesh.Nodes,mesh.Elements(:,Ef2),EdgeColor="green")

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type line.

Find the elements located within a specified box.

Create a PDE model.

model = createpde;

Import and plot the geometry.

importGeometry(model,"PlateHolePlanar.stl");
pdegplot(model)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Generate a mesh.

mesh = generateMesh(model,"Hmax",2,"Hmin",0.4)
mesh = 
  FEMesh with properties:

             Nodes: [2x382 double]
          Elements: [6x170 double]
    MaxElementSize: 2
    MinElementSize: 0.4000
     MeshGradation: 1.5000
    GeometricOrder: 'quadratic'

Find the elements located within the following box.

Eb = findElements(mesh,"box",[5 10],[10 20]);

Highlight these elements in green on the mesh plot.

figure
pdemesh(model)
hold on
pdemesh(mesh.Nodes,mesh.Elements(:,Eb),"EdgeColor","green")

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type line.

Find the elements located within a specified disk.

Create a PDE model.

model = createpde;

Import and plot the geometry.

importGeometry(model,"PlateHolePlanar.stl");
pdegplot(model)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Generate a mesh.

mesh = generateMesh(model,"Hmax",2,"Hmin",0.4,"GeometricOrder","linear")
mesh = 
  FEMesh with properties:

             Nodes: [2x106 double]
          Elements: [3x170 double]
    MaxElementSize: 2
    MinElementSize: 0.4000
     MeshGradation: 1.5000
    GeometricOrder: 'linear'

Find the elements located within radius 2 from the center [5,10].

Er = findElements(mesh,"radius",[5 10],2);

Highlight these elements in green on the mesh plot.

figure
pdemesh(model)
hold on
pdemesh(mesh.Nodes,mesh.Elements(:,Er),"EdgeColor","green")

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type line.

Find the elements attached to a specified corner node.

Create a PDE model.

model = createpde;

Import and plot the geometry.

importGeometry(model,"PlateHolePlanar.stl");
pdegplot(model)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Generate a linear triangular mesh by setting the geometric order value to linear. This mesh contains only corner nodes.

mesh = generateMesh(model,"Hmax",2,"Hmin",0.4, ...
                          "GeometricOrder","linear");

Find the node closest to the point [15;10].

N_ID = findNodes(mesh,"nearest",[15;10])
N_ID = 10

Find the elements attached to this node.

En = findElements(mesh,"attached",N_ID)
En = 1×3

    11    22    28

Highlight the node and the elements in green on the mesh plot.

figure
pdemesh(model)
hold on
plot(mesh.Nodes(1,N_ID),mesh.Nodes(2,N_ID),"or","Color","g", ...
                                           "MarkerFaceColor","g")
pdemesh(mesh.Nodes,mesh.Elements(:,En),"EdgeColor","green")

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 4 objects of type line. One or more of the lines displays its values using only markers

Input Arguments

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Mesh object, specified as the Mesh property of a PDEModel object or as the output of generateMesh.

Example: model.Mesh

Geometric region type, specified as "Cell" or "Face".

Example: findElements(mesh,"region","Face",1:3)

Data Types: char

Geometric region ID, specified as a vector of positive integers. Find the region IDs by using pdegplot.

Example: findElements(mesh,"region","Face",1:3)

Data Types: double

x-limits of the bounding box, specified as a two-element row vector. The first element of xlim is the lower x-bound, and the second element is the upper x-bound.

Example: findElements(mesh,"box",[5 10],[10 20])

Data Types: double

y-limits of the bounding box, specified as a two-element row vector. The first element of ylim is the lower y-bound, and the second element is the upper y-bound.

Example: findElements(mesh,"box",[5 10],[10 20])

Data Types: double

z-limits of the bounding box, specified as a two-element row vector. The first element of zlim is the lower z-bound, and the second element is the upper z-bound. You can specify zlim only for 3-D meshes.

Example: findElements(mesh,"box",[5 10],[10 20],[1 2])

Data Types: double

Center of the bounding circle or sphere, specified as a two-element row vector for a 2-D mesh or three-element row vector for a 3-D mesh. The elements of these vectors contain the coordinates of the center of a circle or a sphere.

Example: findElements(mesh,"radius",[0 0 0],0.5)

Data Types: double

Radius of the bounding circle or sphere, specified as a positive number.

Example: findElements(mesh,"radius",[0 0 0],1)

Data Types: double

ID of the corner node of the element, specified as a positive integer or a vector of positive integers. The findElements function can find an ID of the element by the ID of the corner node of the element. The function ignores IDs of the nodes located in the middle of element edges. For multiple nodes, specify nodeID as a vector.

Example: findElements(mesh,"attached",[7 8 21])

Data Types: double

Output Arguments

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Element IDs, returned as a positive integer or a row vector of positive integers.

Version History

Introduced in R2018a