Abstract

We describe e#cient PRAM algorithms for constructing unbalanced quadtrees, balanced quadtrees, and quadtree-based finite element meshes. Our algorithms take time O(log n) for point set input and O(log n log k) time for planar straight-line graphs, using O(n + k/ log n) processors, where n measures input size and k output size. 1. Introduction A crucial preprocessing step for the finite element method is mesh generation, and the most general and versatile type of two-dimensional mesh is an unstructured triangular mesh. Such a mesh is simply a triangulation of the input domain (e.g., a polygon), along with some extra vertices, called Steiner points. Not all triangulations, however, serve equally well; numerical and discretization error depend on the quality of the triangulation, meaning the shapes and sizes of triangles. A typical quality guarantee gives a lower bound on the minimum angle in the triangulation. Baker et al. 1 first proved the existence of quality triangulations fo...

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