Largest-dihedral-angle bisection algorithm does not preserve mesh regularity for tetrahedral partitions

Abstract

We present a fixed nondegenerate tetrahedron with a nested largest-dihedral-anglebisection branch that collapses onto a unit edge. The selected dihedral angles to bisect are uniquely largest ones at every bisection step. Some face angles of the branch elements tend to zero, the corresponding diameter-to-inradius ratio diverges, and the diameters of the elements produced do not tend to zero, although every dihedral angle stays uniformly away from both 0 and π and all face and dihedral angles satisfy a uniform maximum-angle bound. The proof is based on an exact invariant-range argument. This example shows that the largest-dihedral-angle bisection algorithm can produce degenerating tetrahedral partitions.