Tracking Adaptive Moving Mesh Refinements in 3D Curved Domains for Large-Scale Higher Order Finite Element Simulations

When applying higher order finite elements to curved 3D domains in large-scale accelerator simulations, complexities that arise include needing valid curved finite elements and the capability to track the movement of mesh refinement in the critical domains. This paper presents a procedure which combines Bezier mesh curving and size driven mesh adaptation technologies to address those requirements. The intelligent selection of local mesh modifications to eliminate invalid curved elements and properly control the size distribution are the two key technical components. The procedure has been successfully applied by SLAC to generate 3D moving curved meshes in the large-scale electromagnetic modeling of next generation accelerator designs. The results demonstrated that valid curvilinear meshes not only make the time domain simulations more reliable but also improve the computational efficiency up to 30%.