Everything about Unstructured grid

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

1. Read the overview: Unstructured gridA 5-minute orientation
2. Skim a recent paper: UE-Extractor: A Grid-to-Point Ground Extraction Framework for Unstructured Environments Using Adaptive Grid ProjectionInfluential work since 2022
3. Pick up a classic book: Large-scale parallel unstructured mesh computations for 3D high-lift analysisThe most-reprinted book on the subject
4. Read the landmark paper: Magnetohydrodynamics on an unstructured moving gridCited 291 times
5. Go sideways: Types of meshA closely related topic
6. Go sideways: Mesh generationA closely related topic

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

• Magnetohydrodynamics on an unstructured moving grid

  Ruediger Pakmor, Andreas Bauer, Volker Springel · 2011 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · 291 citations

• UNSTRUCTURED GRID TECHNIQUES

  D. J. Mavriplis · 1997 · Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics · 228 citations

• Automatic unstructured grid generators

  Rainald Löhner · 1997 · Finite Elements in Analysis and Design · 104 citations

• Adaptive embedded and immersed unstructured grid techniques

  Rainald Löhner, Juan R. Cebral, Fernando E. Camelli · 2008 · Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering · 95 citations

• MPDATA: An edge-based unstructured-grid formulation

  Piotr K. Smolarkiewicz, Joanna Szmelter · 2005 · Journal of Computational Physics · 83 citations

• Parallel unstructured grid generation

  Rainald Löhner, Jose Camberos, Marshal Merriam · 1992 · Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering · 76 citations

• Towards Verification of Unstructured-Grid Solvers

  James L. Thomas, Boris Diskin, Christopher L. Rumsey · 2008 · AIAA Journal · 76 citations

• Adaptive embedded unstructured grid methods

  Rainald Löhner, Joseph D. Baum, Eric Mestreau · 2004 · International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering · 71 citations

🆕 Influential since 2022

• UE-Extractor: A Grid-to-Point Ground Extraction Framework for Unstructured Environments Using Adaptive Grid Projection

  Ruoyao Li, Yafei Wang, Shi Sun · 2025 · IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters · 46 citations

• Machine learning for modelling unstructured grid data in computational physics: A review

  Sibo Cheng, Marc Bocquet, Weiping Ding · 2025 · Information Fusion · 39 citations

• Entropy stable and positivity preserving Godunov-type schemes for multidimensional hyperbolic systems on unstructured grid

  Gérard Gallice, Agnes Chan, Raphaël Loubère · 2022 · Journal of Computational Physics · 33 citations

• Global seamless tidal simulation using a 3D unstructured-grid model (SCHISM v5.10.0)

  Y. Joseph Zhang, Tomas Fernandez-Montblanc, William Pringle · 2023 · Geoscientific Model Development · 26 citations

• Enhancement on parallel unstructured overset grid method for complex aerospace engineering applications

  Tianhang XIAO, Haolin ZHI, Shuanghou DENG · 2023 · Chinese Journal of Aeronautics · 17 citations

📚 Books worth reading

• 📕Large-scale parallel unstructured mesh computations for 3D high-lift analysisDimitri Mavriplis · 1999
• 📕Subsonic analysis of 0.04-scale F-16XL models using an unstructured Euler codeWendy B. Lessard · 1996
• 📕Weighted essentially non-oscillatory schemes on triangular meshesChang-Qing Hu · 1998
• 📕A 3-D CE/SE Navier-Stokes solver with unstructured hexahedral grid for computation of near field jet screech noiseChing Y. Loh · 2003
• 📕Out-of-core streamline visualization on large unstructured meshesShyh-Kuang Ueng · 1997
• 📕High-order/spectral methods on unstructured gridsJ. S. Hesthaven · 2001
• 📕PLUMLeonid Oliker · 1998
• 📕Computing axisymmetric jet screech tones using unstructured gridsPhilip C. E. Jorgenson · 2002

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics

• Types of mesh A mesh is a representation of a larger geometric domain by smaller discrete cells. Meshes are commonly used to compute solutions of partial differential…
• Mesh generation Mesh generation is the practice of creating a mesh, a subdivision of a continuous geometric space into discrete geometric and topological cells. Often…
• Regular grid A regular grid is a tessellation of n-dimensional Euclidean space by congruent parallelotopes (e.g. bricks). Its opposite is irregular grid. Grids of this…
• Grid classification In applied mathematics, a grid or mesh is defined as the set of smaller shapes formed after discretisation of a geometric domain. Meshing has applications…
• Lloyd's algorithm In electrical engineering and computer science, Lloyd's algorithm, also known as Voronoi iteration or relaxation, is an algorithm named after Stuart P…
• FEniCS Project The FEniCS Project is a collection of free and open-source software components with the common goal to enable automated solution of differential equations…
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• FEATool Multiphysics FEATool Multiphysics ("Finite Element Analysis Toolbox for Multiphysics") is a physics, finite element analysis (FEA), and partial differential equation…