Regular grid

Example of a regular grid

A regular grid is a tessellation of n-dimensional Euclidean space by congruent parallelotopes (e.g. bricks).^[1] Grids of this type appear on graph paper and may be used in finite element analysis as well as finite volume methods and finite difference methods. Since the derivatives of field variables can be conveniently expressed as finite differences,^[2] structured grids mainly appear in finite difference methods. Unstructured grids offer more flexibility than structured grids and hence are very useful in finite element and finite volume methods.

Each cell in the grid can be addressed by index (i, j) in two dimensions or (i, j, k) in three dimensions, and each vertex has coordinates in 2D or in 3D for some real numbers dx, dy, and dz representing the grid spacing.

Related grids

A Cartesian grid is a special case where the elements are unit squares or unit cubes, and the vertices are integer points.

A rectilinear grid is a tessellation by rectangles or parallelepipeds that are not, in general, all congruent to each other. The cells may still be indexed by integers as above, but the mapping from indexes to vertex coordinates is less uniform than in a regular grid. An example of a rectilinear grid that is not regular appears on logarithmic scale graph paper.

A curvilinear grid or structured grid is a grid with the same combinatorial structure as a regular grid, in which the cells are quadrilaterals or cuboids rather than rectangles or rectangular parallelepipeds.

Examples of regular grids
Cartesian grid  Rectilinear grid  Curvilinear grid  Curvilinear grid

See also

• Cartesian coordinate system
• Integer point
• Unstructured grid

References

Tessellation
Periodic Pythagorean Rhombille Schwarz triangle Rectangle Domino Uniform tiling & honeycomb Coloring Convex Kisrhombille Wallpaper group Wythoff
Aperiodic Ammann–Beenker Aperiodic set of prototiles List Einstein problem Socolar–Taylor Gilbert Penrose Pentagonal Pinwheel Quaquaversal Rep-tile & Self-tiling Sphinx Truchet
Other Anisohedral & Isohedral Architectonic & catoptric Circle Limit III Computer graphics Honeycomb Isotoxal Packing Problems Domino Wang Heesch's Squaring Prototile Conway criterion Girih Regular Division of the Plane Regular grid Substitution Voronoi Voderberg
By vertex type Spherical 2n 33.n V33.n 42.n V42.n Regular 2∞ 36 44 63 Semi- regular 32.4.3.4 V32.4.3.4 33.42 33.∞ 34.6 V34.6 3.4.6.4 (3.6)2 3.122 42.∞ 4.6.12 4.82 Hyper- bolic 32.4.3.5 32.4.3.6 32.4.3.7 32.4.3.8 32.4.3.∞ 32.5.3.5 32.5.3.6 32.6.3.6 32.6.3.8 32.7.3.7 32.8.3.8 33.4.3.4 32.∞.3.∞ 34.7 34.8 34.∞ 35.4 37 38 3∞ (3.4)3 (3.4)4 3.4.62.4 3.4.7.4 3.4.8.4 3.4.∞.4 3.6.4.6 (3.7)2 (3.8)2 3.142 3.162 (3.∞)2 3.∞2 42.5.4 42.6.4 42.7.4 42.8.4 42.∞.4 45 46 47 48 4∞ (4.5)2 (4.6)2 4.6.12 4.6.14 V4.6.14 4.6.16 V4.6.16 4.6.∞ (4.7)2 (4.8)2 4.8.10 V4.8.10 4.8.12 4.8.14 4.8.16 4.8.∞ 4.102 4.10.12 4.122 4.12.16 4.142 4.162 4.∞2 (4.∞)2 54 55 56 5∞ 5.4.6.4 (5.6)2 5.82 5.102 5.122 (5.∞)2 64 65 66 68 6.4.8.4 (6.8)2 6.82 6.102 6.122 6.162 73 74 77 7.62 7.82 7.142 83 84 86 88 812 8.62 8.162 ∞3 ∞4 ∞5 ∞∞ ∞.62 ∞.82