A freeform shape optimization of complex structures represented by arbitrary polygonal or polyhedral meshes

In this paper we propose a new scheme for freeform shape optimization on arbitrary polygonal or polyhedral meshes. The approach consists of three main steps: (1) surface partitioning of polygonal meshes into different patches; (2) a new freeform perturbation scheme of using the Cox–de Boor basis function over arbitrary polygonal meshes, which supports multi-resolution shape optimization and does not require CAD information; (3) freeform shape optimization of arbitrary polygonal or polyhedral meshes. Numerical experiments indicate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.