ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of the basic problem of three-dimensional grid generation, namely finding a single map from the unit cube to a block-like domain. If the transfinite interpolation grid is not adequate, then inhomogeneous grid generators based on partial differential equations may be used to improve the grid; this approach is quite costly and is currently taken only as a last resort. Algebraic grid generation is perhaps the most successful approach to three-dimensional grid generation due to the relative speed with which such grids may be calculated. The transfinite formula is often adequate if the physical domain has been divided into several cube-like subdomains. If not, this approach may serve to generate the initial guess in iterative solution procedures for solving the partial differential equations of 3D grid generation described in this chapter.
