Automated Meshes for FLAC3D Now Possible with Octree Meshing in IMAT

Building accurate numerical models is essential for understanding how rock will behave during excavation or construction. But creating high-quality meshes—especially from complex or imperfect surface geometries—can be time-consuming and tedious. That’s where IMAT’s new automated octree meshing simplifies your modeling workflow.

Traditional FLAC3D grids offer precise control using hexahedra (bricks), wedges, pyramids, and tetrahedra zones, but preparing accurate, clean geometries for meshing often demands supplemental software tools and hours of manual cleanup. Complex mine-scale models with hundreds of surfaces can quickly turn mesh generation into a burden.

Our latest software, IMAT (ITASCA’s Mining Analysis Toolbox), eliminates that challenge with a highly automated, octree-based meshing technique designed for speed, flexibility, and robustness. IMAT creates a mesh using square blocks, finer around surfaces in the area of interest and coarser elsewhere. In a top-down approach, octree meshing starts with a single large cube (the root octant) enclosing the entire model geometry, which is then subdivided repeatedly into eight smaller cubes until the desired level of refinement is reached.

• Automated process: Quickly generates meshes, significantly reducing time and effort without sacrificing model fidelity. Manual refinements are also possible when necessary.
• Tolerant of imperfections: Handles open polyhedron geometries or overlying geometry elements with little to no cleaning of surface geometries.
• Built-in tools: Offset, combine, or densify geometries, or even shrink-wrap new surface geometry onto an imperfect geometry.

The result? Mine-scale FLAC3D models ready in minutes or hours, not hours or days. Whether you’re running dynamic analysis, geomechanical studies, or rapid scenario testing, IMAT’s octree meshing dramatically accelerates model building while maintaining the accuracy you expect from ITASCA. Read on for a comparison of the mesh generation approaches.

FLAC3D Volume Meshing vs. IMAT Octree Meshing