OOF: Finite Element Analysis of Microstructures

Elements inherit their material properties from the underlying pixels in much the same way that they inherit their groups. If you've already read about groups, this discussion will sound familiar. The material inheritance is simpler than the group inheritance because elements can have only one material but can belong to many groups. This menu provides ways to control how and when the transferral of materials from pixels to elements takes place.

In the normal mode of operation (the mode in which you never look at this menu), material properties are assigned to pixels with the /materials menu, and are automatically inherited by the overlying mesh triangles. The actual mechanism by which the inheritance takes place is set by the /adaptive_mesh/materials/transfer_method variable. The default technique is for each element to hold an election. The pixels in the image are divided into antagonistic political parties. By default, all of the pixels in each party have the same material properties and belong to the same pixelgroups. Each pixel votes for a representative pixel from its own party, and the element takes on the material properties of the winning candidate. (When a pixel lies on an element boundary, its vote is prorated by the fraction of its area within the element.)

When the transfer takes place is governed by the /adaptive_mesh/materials/transfer_time variable. How elections are conducted is determined by the /adaptive_mesh/materials/election_rules menu.