Abstract
In case that only nodes on the surface of a 3-dimensional analysis domain are given as input data for the mesh generation, how to generate its surface becomes very important for finite element users. The authors propose two procedures to cover the surface by triangles using only nodes on the surface of the analysis domain. At the beginning the authors explain the idea of the surface generation from nodes, and successively describe the methods of surface generation in details. Main difference between two methods is that one of them requires some additional information in case of boundary configuration with geometric complexity. Both methods are based on Delaunay triangulation, which accepts only nodal coordinates and divides the convex domain covered by nodes into tetrahedra geometrically. Therefore, the success of the surface generation wholly depends on the placement of nodes on the surface, and the paper includes how the nodes should be placed on the surface.
