Fluent User Services Center Introductory GAMBIT Training

www.fluentusers.com GAMBIT 2.3 June 2006

Meshing Strategy

8-1 2006 Fluent Inc.

 Fluent User Services Center Introductory GAMBIT Training
www.fluentusers.com GAMBIT 2.3 June 2006

Introduction
A number of different meshing strategies can be used for dealing with
real-world geometries:
z Hex dominant mesh using geometry decomposition
z Tet dominant mesh
z HexCore mesh

Each approach has a trade-off between computational cost, mesh size,

quality and resolving physics and the time and effort required for
meshing.
z Mesh generation often requires more than 50% of total analysis time.

Selecting the right meshing strategy is a critical task.

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Selecting A Meshing Strategy

The best strategy for dealing with complex geometry depends on

z Time available
Faster tet-dominant mesh vs. crafted hex/hybrid mesh with lower cell count.

z Desired cell count

Low cell count for resolving overall flow features vs. high cell count for
greater detail
HexCore mesh vs. tet-dominant mesh.

z Desired mesh quality

What is the maximum skewness and aspect ratio you can tolerate?

z Physics
Flow features, resolving turbulence

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Hex-Dominant Meshing
The geometry is decomposed into multiple meshable volumes using
Boolean operations and splits.
The following meshing tools are used to create a hex mesh:
z Map
z Submap
z Tet-Primitive
z Cooper
A tetrahedral (tet) may be created for a complex subvolume.
z Example Subvolume containing the impellers in a mixing tank.
This works well for prismatic and nearly prismatic geometries.
z Advantage: Reduced cell count with higher mesh quality translating to faster
turnaround time on simulation.
z Disadvantage: The decomposition may be time consuming for complex
geometries.
We will now see some examples of decomposition.
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Decomposition Example #1
Spherical void inside a brick
z Construction
Create a sphere, and a brick using volume primitives.
Subtract the sphere from the brick.
z Decomposition
Create a cylinder. The cylinder diameter should be smaller than the sphere
and its length extending outside the brick.
Split the brick using the cylinder
Create edges going diagonally over the top and bottom face of the brick and
use the edges to create a diagonal face.
Split the brick-like volume using this face.

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Decomposition Example #1

Source
Faces

Source
Faces

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Decomposition Example #2
z Two-pipe intersection (different radii)
Construction:
VCreate the pipes using volume primitives
VCreate a stretched brick with a rectangular cross-section, where the side
length should be between the two pipe diameters.
Decomposition
VSplit the main pipe using the brick
VUnite the brick cut-out with the small cylinder

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Decomposition Example #2

Source
Faces

Source
Faces

Source
Faces

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Mixing Tank
Mixing tank:
z The mixing tank is decomposed and a hex mesh is created everywhere,
with tets in the impeller volume.

Tets in impeller zone

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Other Examples
Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) bypass duct

1 Hex Cooper

2 Tet mesh in complex

sub-volume

3 Prism Mesh
(Hex/Wedge Cooper)

4 Prism Mesh 5 Tet mesh on

(Hex/Wedge Cooper) intermediate volume

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Tet-Dominant Mesh
Mostly tetrahedral mesh with some
areas containing pyramid, prism and
hex elements.
z Boundary layer prisms/hexes are
grown from surfaces where wall
effects (boundary layer) are
important.

Size functions attached to the flow

volume can be used to create
grading in the surface/volume mesh.
z Global size functions to resolve
curvature and proximity. Automobile Manifold Tet-Dominant
z Local size functions for refinement in Mesh Using Size Functions and
some areas. Boundary Layers

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Axial Fan Blade

A curvature size function was used to resolve the blade geometry.
z Boundary layer attached to the blade to resolve near-wall effects.
A proximity size function was used to resolve the tip clearance gap.
Fixed size functions were used to grow the surface mesh away from the
blade at the hub and shroud.

Tip clearance Shroud

(small gap)

Fan Blade

Hub
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HexCore Mesh
HexCore meshing can dramatically
lower the mesh count and improve
overall quality on volumes with
complexity at the surfaces.

The number of offset layers, as well

as size functions, can be adjusted
to minimize the high-skewness tets
resulting from any narrow gaps Flow Volume Around a Boat Hull
between the boundary and the
HexCore.

HexCore may not be compatible

with some physical models and
have size jumps between the tets
and hex core.
Flow Volume Inside an Auto Manifold
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Meshing for Quality

Mesh quality affects the face flux calculations between cells and hence
directly impacts the accuracy of the solution and ease of convergence.
z Avoid degenerate elements (skewness ~ 1) or high aspect ratio (~ 5) in the
flow volume and high aspect ratio (~ 100) in the boundary layer.
Good mesh quality depends on:
z Clean surface geometry and volumes not having slivers and small features
close to complex surfaces.
z Resolving geometric features well (gaps, curvature, sharp angles etc.)
z Creating a good surface mesh with appropriate sizing function growth rate
and size limit, edge grading, spacing etc.

Close proximity of Face merge allows

edges makes better mesh quality
meshing difficult

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Meshing for Physics

Complex physics on complex geometry
requires greater care in estimating the
lowest mesh size required to resolve the
physics and grading mesh away from
that size.
z Some flow features can be calculated and
resolved with appropriate mesh: jets, wall
boundary layers, smallest eddies in LES
z Some flow features are functions of
boundary conditions (recirculations,
shocks, vortex lines etc.) and cannot be
fully anticipated in size, location and
shape.

The objective is to generate a mesh of
reasonable quality and then refine it
further
z Remeshing in GAMBIT
z Solution-based adaption in FLUENT
Hex mesh used for LES modeling of
confined swirling coaxial jets
expanding into a pipe.

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Summary
Selecting the right mesh and meshing strategy for real world geometries is
critical in terms of meshing time and effort, and depends on considerations of
available time, required mesh quality and mesh count and problem physics.

A hex-dominant mesh usually requires decomposition, and is used primarily for

prismatic geometries.

A tet-dominant mesh is appropriate for complex geometries. Usually, size

functions and boundary layers are used to grade the mesh.

A HexCore mesh is used to lower the cell count and improve overall mesh
quality, for flow volumes with complexity near the walls and a large core region.

Several examples were shown here for each mesh type and meshing strategy.

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