# how can I find the mesh size

Let there is triangular mesh for a simple domain (domain is not important).

If this mesh is not uniform (the mesh is produced by adaptive technique), what is the mesh size?

Is there a mesh size for each triangle? or this is a number relate to the whole mesh on the domain? How do I compute it?

Thank you,

• It depends what you want to do with mesh size. If for example you need it for local refinement - you probably need to have seperate values for each element. If you need it to determinate time step - you need only one value - for example maximum, but it depends on a problem you are trying to solve and equation to determinate timestep. – Krzysztof Bzowski Nov 1 '15 at 11:16
• On the off chance you're doing a solution convergence analysis, you might be better off to plot the error as a function of the DoF count (instead of the mesh size). – GoHokies Nov 2 '15 at 9:23

• To add to @knl's comment, another approach is to define $h$ as the ratio of surface area to volume of an element. – Jesse Chan Nov 7 '15 at 8:30