Stephan Schmidt

Jorgen S. Dokken, Simon W. Funke, August Johansson et al.

An important step in shape optimization with partial differential equation constraints is to adapt the geometry during each optimization iteration. Common strategies are to employ mesh-deformation or re-meshing, where one or the other typically lacks robustness or is computationally expensive. This paper proposes a different approach, in which the computational domain is represented by multiple, independent meshes. A Nitsche based finite element method is used to weakly enforce continuity over the non-matching mesh interfaces. The optimization is preformed using an iterative gradient method, in which the shape-sensitivities are obtained by employing the Hadamard formulas and the adjoint approach. An optimize-then-discretize approach is chosen due to its independence of the FEM framework. Since the individual meshes may be moved freely, re-meshing or mesh deformations can be entirely avoided in cases where the geometry changes consists of rigid motions or scaling. By this free movement, we obtain robust and computational cheap mesh adaptation for optimization problems even for large domain changes. For general geometry changes, the method can be combined with mesh-deformation or re-meshing techniques to reduce the amount of deformation required. We demonstrate the capabilities of the method on several examples, including the optimal placement of heat emitting wires in a cable to minimize the chance of overheating, the drag minimization in Stokes flow, and the orientation of 25 objects in a Stokes flow.

Lukas Baumgärtner, Ronny Bergmann, Roland Herzog et al.

We consider the problem of surface segmentation, where the goal is to partition a surface represented by a triangular mesh. The segmentation is based on the similarity of the normal vector field to a given set of label vectors. We propose a variational approach and compare two different regularizers, both based on a total variation measure. The first regularizer penalizes the total variation of the assignment function directly, while the second regularizer penalizes the total variation in the label space. In order to solve the resulting optimization problems, we use variations of the split Bregman (ADMM) iteration adapted to the problem at hand. While computationally more expensive, the second regularizer yields better results in our experiments, in particular it removes noise more reliably in regions of constant curvature.

Lukas Baumgärtner, Ronny Bergmann, Roland Herzog et al.

We propose a novel formulation for the second-order total generalized variation (TGV) of the normal vector on an oriented, triangular mesh embedded in $\R^3$. The normal vector is considered as a manifold-valued function, taking values on the unit sphere. Our formulation extends previous discrete TGV models for piecewise constant scalar data that utilize a Raviart-Thomas function space. To extend this formulation to the manifold setting, a tailor-made tangential Raviart-Thomas type finite element space is constructed in this work. The new regularizer is compared to existing methods in mesh denoising experiments.

Stephan Schmidt

A two step mesh deformation approach for large nodal deformations, typically arising from non-parametric shape optimization, fluid-structure interaction or computer graphics, is considered. Two major difficulties, collapsed cells and an undesirable parameterization, are overcome by considering a special form of ray tracing paired with a centroid Voronoi reparameterization. The ray direction is computed by solving an Eikonal equation. With respect to the Hadamard form of the shape derivative, both steps are within the kernel of the objective and have no negative impact on the minimizer. The paper concludes with applications in 2D and 3D fluid dynamics and automatic code generation and manages to solve these problems without any remeshing. The methodology is available as a FEniCS shape optimization add-on at http://www.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~schmidt/femorph.