A Framework for 2D Mesh Generation from Computed Tomography of Rock Samples

Abstract

Generating meshes is essential in fields like numerical simulations, computer graphics, and finite element analysis. CT scan technology is now widely used in different areas beyond medicine, including geosciences. The use of digital representations of rocks enables capturing different physical properties of real samples without altering the original rock samples. This study introduces a structured approach to digitally reconstruct rock samples from raw CT scan data and create 2D finite element meshes on Gmsh, incorporating both external libraries and self-developed algorithms. Tests are conducted on diverse rock types, including sandpack and carbonate. The level of mesh coarseness is regulated by specifying an area tolerance parameter between the original connected regions and its discretized representations. The resulting meshes are applied in finite element simulations using the NeoPZ environment.