REDUCTION OF A MESH WITH PRESERVATION OF FLOW LINES

To preserve flow line characteristics in a reduced mesh, the mesh is reduced by identifying one or more flow lines in the mesh and removing a plurality of edges associated with the one or more flow lines. Such a reduction may be achieved by identifying a set of connecting edges between adjacent flow lines, or between portions of adjacent flow lines, and contracting these connecting edges in one step. The set of connecting edges to contract in any given iteration may be identified based on the flow lines. A cost metric also may be used to decide which connecting edges are in the set to be contracted. In a first technique, a lowest cost edge is selected, and other connecting edges between the same adjacent flow lines are added to the set until a threshold condition is met. This threshold condition balances preservation of flow lines with preservation of attributes. In a second technique, several sets of connecting edges are identified. The set of connecting edges with the lowest cost is contracted in each iteration, and the cost of each set is updated after each iteration.