A plug-in based tool for numerical grid generation

The presented research summarizes (1) the development of a rapid prototyping framework, (2) the application of advance meshing algorithms, data structures, programming languages and libraries toward the field of numerical surface-water modeling (NSWM), (3) the application of (2) in (1), and (4) a real world application. The result of the research was the development of a prototype grid generator tool, the Mesh Generation and Refinement Tool (MGRT). MGRT supports a customizable interface and plug-and-play functionality through the use of plug-ins and incorporates a plug-in based topology/geometry system. A detailed explanation of the data structures, algorithms, and tools used to construct the MGRT are presented. Additionally, the construction of a mesh of Mobile Bay is presented. This represents a real world application of the MGRT. This tool provides many benefits over current tools in NSWM, which include faster meshing and the ability the use any grid generator that can be plugged-in.