Es-Ice Manual 031805

The es-ice User Manual
March 18, 2005
Expert System for Internal Combustion Engines

Version 1.04

Copyright © 1996-2005 adapco - All Rights Reserved.

The es-ice User Manual is intended for use by adapco customers and other business partners.
One may cite or refer to the information in the es-ice User Manual in books, on-line services,
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adapco SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE es-
ice USER MANUAL OR YOUR USE THEREOF, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR OTHERWISE,
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AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. adapco SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR
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WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST REVENUES, LOST PROFITS, OR LOSS OF PROSPEC-
TIVE ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE, RESULTING FROM THE USE OR MISUSE OF THE
es-ice USER MANUAL, OR THE INFORMATION HEREIN.
Release Notes: es-ice Version 1.04
Added/modified features and functionality in es-ice in 1.04.000 (since 1.02.001)
• A command "CSet,List,id" is added which lists the sets that include Cell"id". Similar com-
mands can be used for edges(Eset), patches(Pset),Splines(Sset),vertices(Vset),Vshells(VSset).
• A command "CSet,List,Set,set" has been added which lists the sets that include cells in
Cset "set". Similar commands can be used for edges(Eset), patches(Pset),Splines(Sset),verti-
ces(Vset),Vshells(VSset).
• The buttons that choose the source of spline knots can be selected by 'right click' while the
spline is being defined.
• Decomposition option for valves is now 'Combine'.
• Resuming from a database file switches to the Geometry/Template window respectively.
• The option 'Newset' in '__set, Newset,...' is infact Newset and not Subset (as in pro-
STAR).
• For multiple cylinders, there is a "Restore" button to restore the parameters that were used
to define a coordinate system.
• Edges and Splines can now be picked by clicking anywhere on them (and not just on the
knots).
• There is a third plotting window ("Workspace") that is used when defining the sections or
the sector to avoid destroying the existing Template. By default it is only visible when it is
active, but "Workspace,Option,Show,Always" make it always visible.
• "Create All" in the "Sections" menu creates all the Sections, without opening their tools.
• There is a "Multiple cylinders" button in the "Create Result" tool. It can be used with
either "Interpolation" or "Calculation".
• The layers for all cylinders are listed in "make_ev.tab".
• The grids used for interpolation are found from the topological changes and geometric
extremes for each cylinder separately. This change has the side effect of not using valve open-
ing and closing events.
• A command "Vundo" causes to undo the last change to the vertex positions.
• If the trimming fails, because there is a cut on a cell face of a valve curtain, you can repair
the offending cell and try to continue with the command "Trim,Recover,Curtain". This also
turns on the vertex plotting option and replots.
• es-ice can now check the mesh for the following: Centroid, Concavity, Cracks, Small
cells, Tetrahedral quality, and Warpage.
• A command is added to create a new vertex with: "Vgenerate, New, Coordinates, x, y, z"
• A command "IceTemplate,Check/ScriptCheck" checks volumes and warpages of a
sequence of meshes. It also calls for pro-STAR to check the meshes.
• es-ice now has a capability to add a ‘full extrusion layer’ for the model, i.e to the piston,
cylinder dome, cylinder wall, valves, and the ports. “Trim, Assemble” will add a full extrusion
layer if the piston extrusion shells are NOT defined and "Extrusion"> 0.0.
• The command "Check,Faces,Collapsed" finds cells with collapsed faces. The command
"Check,Faces" that finds faces shared by more than two cells has been renamed
"Check,Faces,Multiple".
• The Ice command line option "-piston-uncollapse-fraction=fraction" can be used during
"Star setup" to change the fraction of the stroke in which the cylinder layers are added.
• In "mvmesh.sh", changed "# EXEC = $ESICE/executable" to "# EXEC = $STARDIR/bin/
executable", and added "# RFLAG = -proserve=$1,$2".
• es-ice will now generate CP matches for extruded cells that contain a vertex that is
unmergedwhen the collapsing layers are added to the cylinder.
• The vertices of the ASI piston that are at or below the projection layer will simply be
translated instead of being reprojected onto the bottom of the cylinder.
• Partial boundaries for all CP tables is turned on.
• When two valves are within 0.66667 of their closed distance from each other, they are
assumed to overlap, which disables any straight fill. This value can be changed with the extra
parameter "-valve-overlap-fraction=fraction" during StarSetup.
• es-ice now creates a spline of the valve profile as it is defined. Also, it automatically resets
the "tolerance" when defining a valve. "Cursor" is the default when defining a valve.
• 1 valve template can be used as a 0 valve template by changing the valve style to "None".
• es-ice now allows sector parameters to be copied and reflected.
• "View,Section,X/Y/Z" can be used to create a section plot
Table of Contents
CHAPTERS:
1. Introduction
1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
1.2 Organization of the Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
1.3 The es-ice Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
1.4 Basic es-ice Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
1.5 Provided User Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
1.6 The General Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7
1.7 Before Starting es-ice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10
1.8 Introduction to the Tutorial Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12
2. Geometry Import and Valve Work
2.1 Importing the Geometry Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
2.2 Defining a Local Coordinate System for a Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
2.3 Creating and Checking a Valve Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
2.4 Using the Provided Panel for Valve Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
2.5 Saving the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6
3. Meshing with the Trimming Method
3.1 Modifying Special Cell Sets of the Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
3.2 Creating Splines for Geometry Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
3.3 Creating the 2D Base Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4
3.4 Creating the 3D Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13
3.5 Trimming the 3D Template to the Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16
3.6 Resolving Cells with es-ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-17
3.7 Adding Extrusion Layers to Port Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18
3.8 Assembling the Trimmed Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-19
4. Meshing with the Mapping Method
4.1 Creating the Stub Surface in the Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
4.2 Creating the 2D Base Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7
4.3 Creating the 3D Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17

4.4 General Notes About Edges and Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-23
4.5 Creating Edges and Splines Near the Valve Seat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-24
4.6 Creating the Remaining Edges and Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-32
4.7 Creating Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-37
4.8 The Mapping Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-39
4.9 Importing and Cpmatching the Externally-Created Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-47
4.10 Meshing the Piston with the Shape Piston Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-50
5. Setting up for STAR-CD from within es-ice
5.1 Star Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
5.2 Creating and Reading Results to Check the Mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
5.3 Decomposition for running parallel analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
6. Setting up for STAR-CD from within pro-STAR
6.1 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1
6.2 Using the Automatically-Generated Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1
6.3 Assigning Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
6.4 Setting Analysis Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
6.5 File Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9
7. Running the Analysis
7.1 File Organization and Directory Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
7.2 Running the Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
8. Running the Analysis with ahead files
8.1 Ahead Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1
9. Post-processing Basics
APPENDICES:
A. Functionality and GUI Overview
A.1 Plotting and Text Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
A.1.1 The Plot Tool Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
A.1.2 The “Views” Pull-Down Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-3
A.1.3 The Plot Options Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-4
A.1.4 Plotting to a File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-5

A.1.5 Text Outputs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-5
A.2 Template Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-7
A.2.1 The Create Template Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-7
A.2.2 The General Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-9
A.2.3 The Trim Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-12
A.2.4 The Cylinder Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-14
A.2.5 The Valve 2D Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-15
A.2.6 The Valve Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-17
A.2.7 The Arm Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-21
A.2.8 The Events Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-22
A.2.9 The Section Tool Panel and the Section Adjustment Points . . . . . A-23
A.3 Special Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-32
A.4 Machine Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-34
B. Special Features and Capabilities
B.1 Piston Modeling (Mapping Method). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1
B.1.1 Flat Piston. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1
B.1.2 Projected Piston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2
B.1.3 Shape Piston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-3
B.1.4 Match Piston. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-4
B.1.5 Arbitrary Piston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-6
B.1.6 Match and Arbitrary Piston with (Distort) Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-7
B.2 The Discontinuous Deletion Layer (Mapping Method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-8
B.3 The “Create full model” Option (Mapping Method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-9
B.4 Static Meshing (Mapping Method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-10
B.5 Axisymmetric Sector Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-13
B.5.1 Axisymmetric Sector and Axisymmetric Full 360-Degree MeshingB-18
B.5.2 Non-Axisymmetric Full 360-Degree Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-18
B.6 Multi-Cylinder Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-20
B.7 Special Option Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-23
B.7.1 Possibly Useful Flags for Mapped Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-23
B.7.2 Miscellaneous Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-23

C. Advanced Modeling Issues
C.1 Before Starting es-ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-1
C.2 Key Point Specification for Valves without Chamfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-2
C.3 Creating a Custom Mesh for Ports in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation . . C-3
C.3.1 2D Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-3
C.3.2 3D Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-8
C.4 Reflecting Symmetric Information (Mapping Method) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-12
C.5 Alternative pro-STAR Setup to Use Crank Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-12
C.6 Adding an Extrusion Layer to the Piston (Trimming Method) . . . . . . . . . . . . C-13
C.7 Modification Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-14
C.7.1 Changing Engine Speed (RPM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-14
C.7.2 Changing Starting and/or Stopping Crank Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-14
C.7.3 Changing Valve Lift Curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-14
D. Related Files on adapco’s Ftp Site
CHAPTERS
The es-ice User Manual Chapter 1
Chapter 1 Introduction
Figure 1-1: The es-ice Environment
1.1 Overview
es-ice is designed to facilitate moving grid, transient analyses of internal combustion engines
and is used in conjunction with pro-STAR and STAR-CD. es-ice is capable of creating grids
for two, three, four or five valve cylinders. es-ice also generates the events input for pro-
STAR and moves the mesh during STAR-CD analyses.
The strategy underlying this programming suite is straightforward. With es-ice, the user
quickly and easily generates a template that approximates the desired geometry. The template
has the connectivity of the final grid, but its shape is simple enough to be specified by a lim-
ited number of parameters. The template can be generated in a wide-variety of configurations
merely by altering the parameters. es-ice provides graphical tools for setting the parameters so
that minimal memorization of parameter names is required. The user can then either trim the
template (using the same methodology as incorporated in pro-STAR with auto mesh gener-
ation) or map the surface of the template to the surface of the geometry. The interior vertices
are then re-distributed to form a valid mesh that matches the desired geometry. After the
Version 1.04 page 1-1

Chapter 1 The es-ice User Manual
model and analysis setup is complete in pro-STAR, the computations are then performed
with STAR-CD and the results are displayed and analyzed via pro-STAR.
The chief benefits of this approach are the quick generation of the approximate template; the
flexibility in grid design provided by the parameterization; the ease-of-use arising from the
graphical tools; time-savings gained by automatic smoothing of interior mesh vertices, auto-
matic events generation and automatic mesh motion; the use of a proven, reliable and accurate
solver in STAR-CD; and the power and flexibility of the pre-/post-processing tool, pro-
STAR. Note that this programming suite is fully capable of solving complete cycle problems
and also of automatically preparing the necessary files for parallel computations.
1.2 Organization of the Manual

This manual offers descriptions of features and a tutorial example. The remainder of this
chapter contains a brief description of the es-ice environment and basic es-ice functionality
which is intended to acquaint the user with the features needed to get started. The general es-
ice methodology and an introduction to the main tutorial example is also presented. The fol-
lowing chapters work through the main tutorial example, showing in detail how the program
is used. The appendices at the end of this manual provide some instruction on optional proce-
dures and miscellaneous features available in es-ice as well as document various parameter
definitions and GUI panel inputs.
Different fonts exist throughout this manual to easily distinguish certain issues: the bold font
is used for names of programs; the italic font is used for commands and keyboard inputs; the
Courier font is used for names of files; and the Arial font is used for names of GUI panels,
tools and windows in es-ice and other programs.
1.3 The es-ice Environment

The es-ice program consists of both the es-ice and Ice executables. The es-ice execut-
able directly interfaces with the user and provides the working environment through GUI pan-
els, tools and windows. The Ice executable is usually called by the es-ice executable or is
run with STAR-CD and mainly performs intense calculations such as computing vertex posi-
tions at specified crank angle times.
To start the es-ice program, both the es-ice and Ice executables should be in the same
directory and this directory should be available in the user’s search path through the “PATH”
environment variable or links can be created alternatively. The names of the executables
should be exactly “es-ice” and “Ice” or links can be created alternatively. Also, the proper
licensing should be setup, through the use of new flexlm or old “lockfile” formats. Note that
the “TMPDIR” environment variable will be used for the location of temporary files or if it is
undefined then the current working directory will be used. Execute the following at the unix
or linux prompt to start the program:
es-ice
Several windows will open as illustrated in the figure at the beginning of this chapter. Sepa-
rate plotting windows are dedicated to the display of the geometry and the template (in the fig-
ure, the Template window is behind the Geometry window). The word “geometry” is used to
page 1-2 Version 1.04

represent the discretized surface which defines the boundaries of the desired domain for the
CFD calculation. The word “template” is used to represent the computational mesh to be cre-
ated. Thus the geometry is displayed in the Geometry window and the template is displayed in
the Template window.
Either the Geometry or Template window is always active. This
is indicated by the highlighted button in the Plot Tool which is
the panel located to the upper-left corner of the screen. The
user can toggle back and forth using the appropriate button to
activate the desired window. The active window comes to the
front and es-ice applies subsequent commands to that window.
The viewing perspective and zoom can be set independently in
each window. There is also a variety of other plotting options
that affect the display of the active window which are avail-
able from the Plot Tool.
Besides the plotting windows, the other large window that
comes up automatically is the main es-ice window. This window is divided into three text sec-
tions: the middle text section is the command line where the user executes es-ice commands;
the lower text section is the echo area where the commands of the current session are logged;
and the upper text section is the message area where information for the user is displayed in
response to commands. It is important to monitor this message area frequently to understand
the status of es-ice operations. Note that the information in the echo area is also sent automat-
ically to a file called es-ice.echo in the current working directory.
The main es-ice window also has several pull-down menus located along the top.
These pull-down menus are an alternative way to execute most commands. It allows the user
to execute commands by using the cursor to click and pick options.
The Select panel provides access to the other GUI panels and tools including
on-line help and is organized so that the user picks tools sequentially from top
to bottom in the course of an es-ice session.
es-ice’s on-line help is an extremely useful reference and learning tool, and is
available in several formats: via the mouse, pull-down menu and command
line. For help with most features in the GUI panels and tools, the user can
click the “Help on Context” button near the bottom of the Select panel (note
that the cursor changes shape to a question mark) and then click on any es-ice
button, option or input field located in any panel or tool. The “Help” pull-
down menu located in the upper-right corner of the main es-ice window can
be used to list the available commands from a selected category. Through the

command line the user can type help by itself for a short list of the available commands
grouped into various categories, type command by itself to generate an extensive listing of all
possible commands and their options or type help followed by a command name for a short
summary of the specified command and its options. In most cases, a Help window will open
automatically in the upper-right corner of the screen to display the results but the command
command will ask for the name of the file to output the information.
Besides the Help window, there is another text window that will open in the upper-right corner
of the screen when es-ice wants to provide extra information. The Child output window will
open to provide separated output, usually for a child process. A child process is started by es-
ice in the background which allows the user to continue working in es-ice. Most child pro-
cesses involve running the Ice executable.
1.4 Basic es-ice Functionality

This section will discuss basic es-ice functionality so that the following chapters working the
tutorial example can be understood more quickly and easily. Most functions are similar to
pro-STAR, but there are some differences that make es-ice unique. Included in this section
will be discussions of the two plotting windows, numbered sets of entities, mouse functions,
command executions, and various terminology that is used throughout this manual.
As mentioned in the previous section, es-ice uses two separate plotting windows, the Geometry
and Template. The two plotting windows are separated so that different views, zooms and
other plot settings can be applied independently. Some elements, including cells and vertices,
exist in both plotting windows and one of the plotting windows is always active. Therefore,
es-ice will execute commands on shared elements (such as cset,all for example) based on
which window is active. The labels of figures that are in this manual also indicate which win-
dow the plot is from.
During the meshing process, the user will be working with both surface shells and computa-
tional cells which are separated by es-ice. Commands are executed on elements depending on
which plotting window is active. Throughout this manual, the word “geometry” will refer to
the discretized surface shells which are plotted in the Geometry window. The word “template”
will refer to the computational cells which are plotted in the Template window.
Unlike cells and vertices, line elements are not shared elements between the two plotting win-
dows. Line elements that exist in the Template window are called “edges” and line elements
that exist in the Geometry window are called “splines”. The points of these line elements are
called “knots”. A final major element in es-ice is called a “patch”, which is a collection of cell
faces that exist in the Template window.
All of these elements each have separate set definitions similar to the set definitions of pro-
STAR. The first letter of the element name is used to describe the set such that “cset” is the
cell set, “vset” is the vertex set, “eset” is the edge set, “sset” is the spline set and “pset” is the
patch set. These set definitions can be manipulated by tools and commands similar to those in
pro-STAR.
A difference of es-ice set definitions to those in pro-STAR is the number of sets available for
each element. pro-STAR only handles one set internally of each element which is always

active so that it can be displayed in the plot window. es-ice also has one active set of each ele-
ment but also has twenty-five internally stored sets for each element individually. These sets
are numbered such that 0 is the active set and 1-25 are the internally stored sets which can be
labelled to provide a description and locked to prevent accidental overwrites. Some of the sets
for some elements are already labelled which are reserved for specific purposes. These num-
bered sets can be used for organization and to achieve great flexibility in manipulating, storing
and recalling elements. Note that there are single set definitions for edges, splines and patches,
but there are dual set definitions each for cells and vertices since those shared elements exist
separately in the Geometry and Template windows.
Mouse functions in es-ice are mostly similar to those of pro-STAR, especially the default plot
functions: a left-click and drag rotates the plot; a double left-click and drag rotates in an alter-
nate axis; a middle-click and drag zooms; a double middle-click and drag creates a zoom box;
a middle-click replots; a double middle-click zooms off and replots; a right-click and drag
pans; a double right-click re-centers and replots.
There is always text on the bottom of the active plotting window that shows the mouse func-
tions available. “L” is for a left-click, “M” is for a middle-click and “R” is for a right-click.
Double letters represent a double click and the “->” arrow represents a click and drag. One
general difference in mouse functions is that es-ice does not limit the number of clicks used to
create a zone box, for example with the cset,subset,zone command.
Like pro-STAR, a left-click is used in es-ice to make picks with the cursor.
There are other mouse functions available in pick mode that are different from
pro-STAR. In es-ice, the cursor pick mode is continuous for most commands.
If the pick mode is continuous, there will be text on the bottom of the plotting
window that will show how to quit the pick mode: any mouse click off of the
plot on an empty section of the plotting window or typing q with the cursor in
the plotting window. If an incorrect pick was made, it is usually possible to regret it with a
middle-click so that the pick can be made again. Sometimes dynamic mode is an option,
which will suspend pick mode temporarily allowing the mouse to return to plot mode to
rotate, zoom and pan the plot. Once the newly desired view is obtained, type q with the cursor
in the plotting window to quit the dynamic mode and return to the pick mode. The shape of the
cursor will change to visually inform the user of the mode changes. Dynamic mode is useful
whenever successive cursor picks are desired and zooming in closely is necessary for accu-
racy of the picks when the points are not relatively close to each other.
Similar to pro-STAR, commands in es-ice can be executed by clicking buttons in GUI panels,
by using the pull-down menus at the top of the es-ice window or by typing commands with the
keyboard. When typing commands, the comma (“,”) or a blank space (“ “) can be used to sep-
arate the options. Only the first four letters of the command is necessary, but unlike pro-
STAR, es-ice usually does not accept incorrect spellings even if they occur after the fourth
letter of a command or option.
While pro-STAR and es-ice share many of the same commands, there are some functions and
commands that work slightly differently or have slightly different options. When entering

commands through the command line, be sure to use help to verify them and their options
until experience is gained. The text in the Help panel is written such that options beginning
with an upper-case letter are to be used directly and options in all lower-case letters are to be
replaced by the user with appropriate inputs. For example, the help,resume command shows
the following: “Resume, filename”. This means that resume is to be used directly and “file-
name” is to be replaced by the user with the appropriate name of the file.
Throughout this manual, certain terminology is used carefully to distinguish between certain
actions. The term “delete” is used to remove elements from an active set while the term
“clear” is used to remove elements completely from existence in the model. Thus, deleting is
similar to unselecting and clearing is similar to destroying. With GUI panels, the button
“Read” is used to read information from an external file and the button “Load” is used to read
information from an internally saved “image”. By default, some information is written to an
external file, but the “image” format is stored internally within the model file. Also with GUI
panels, the button “Apply” is similar to pro-STAR in that it will apply the modified parame-
ters of a panel but will not close the panel. The button “Ok”, however, will apply and then
close the panel also.
1.5 Provided User Panel

There is a user panel called training.pnl that is available through the adapco ftp site.
This user panel is recommended and is referred to in the upcoming chapters during the course
of working the tutorial example.
To open the user panel in es-ice, use the pull-down menus and choose “Panels” > “Directory”.
Then specify the path of the directory where the panel is located. The “Panels” pull-down
menu will be updated to show the user panel as an option so that One can choose “Panels” >
“training” to open it.
User panels in es-ice are very similar to those in pro-STAR. Panel buttons can be written to
execute a series of commands when left-clicked. A right-click on a panel button will activate
it to show the assigned commands without executing them. To add more buttons, use the
“Layout” pull-down menu at the top of the panel.

Optionally, the user can customize es-ice to automatically open the provided user panel when
the program is started. To do this, create a text file called .es-icerc in the home directory
of the user with a line that has the panel,directory,<directory_name> command in it. The
commands in this file are executed whenever es-ice is started.
1.6 The General Methodology

The es-ice user manual not only includes material specific to the es-ice program, but also
other steps and software that cover more of the entire in-cylinder modeling process. There-
fore, the general methodology can be separated into three major phases: preliminary work that
is performed before starting es-ice, meshing work that is performed in es-ice and post-mesh-
ing performed that is done after exiting es-ice.
Before starting es-ice, there is preliminary work that needs to be done. The diagram below
shows the necessary steps divided into three groupings.
before es-ice
align and orient cylinder

close valves discretize wetted surface
move piston to TDC position separate by cell type
create valve lift curves
The order of these steps are unimportant and will depend on the CAD program available as
well as the user’s skills with using the CAD program versus other CD adapco Group soft-
ware. Except for creating valve lift curves, all other steps can be done using pro-surf and pro-
STAR with auto mesh generation. If the user can work more easily in a CAD program, then
alternatively most of the work can be done there.
The computational mesh is then created using es-ice with either of two available methods: the
new “trimming” method or the original “mapping” method. The new trimming method uses
trim cell technology as incorporated in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation, while the
original mapping method uses a surface mapping or projection technique. The following dia-
gram shows the general steps in order of top to bottom.

in es-ice
Import Geometry
Define Local Valve Coordinate Systems

Create Valve Profiles
TRIMMING MAPPING
METHOD METHOD
Modify Geometry Csets Create Stub Surface (if necessary)

Create Splines
Create 2D Base Template

Create 2D Base Template Create 3D Template
Create 3D Template
Create Edges and Splines

Create Patches
Trim the Template
Map the Template

Fix and Resolve Cells
Add Extrusion Cells to Port Faces
Add Additional Mesh (if necessary)
Import and Cpmatch Ports (if necessary)
Add Additional Mesh (if necessary)
Assemble the Template

Create Piston Mesh
Star Setup
Create/Read/Check Mesh Results at Various Crank Angles

Decompose Mesh for Parallel Processing (if necessary)

Note that pro-STAR is the general pre-/post- processor for STAR-CD. After working in es-
ice, the model and analysis needs to be setup in pro-STAR. Analyses can then be run using
serial or parallel processing with the Ice executable providing the mesh motion.
after es-ice
Unix/Linux:
Organize Setup Files and Directories (optional)
pro-STAR:
Perform Initial Setup with es-ice.PNL
Setup Boundary and Initial Conditions
Setup Analysis Controls
Write Geometry and Problem Files
SERIAL PARALLEL
ANALYSIS ANALYSIS
Unix/Linux: Unix/Linux:
Organize Analysis Files and Directories Organize Analysis Files and Directories
(optional) (optional)
Unix/Linux:
Run analysis in serial as given in Chap. 7 Run analysis in parallel as given in Chap. 7
STAR-CD:
Run Analysis
pro-STAR:
Post-Process Results
Since es-ice is an “expert systems” software, it is expected that the user have some basic
knowledge and experience with pro-STAR and STAR-CD. If the user expects to run in-cyl-
inder analyses with parallel processing, then some basic knowledge and experience with run-

ning parallel analyses is also expected. Details and explanations of software other than es-ice
will be limited.
1.7 Before Starting es-ice

Before starting es-ice, there is preliminary work that needs to be done. The order of these
steps are unimportant and will depend on the CAD program available as well as the user’s
skills with using the CAD program versus other CD adapco Group software. Except for cre-
ating valve lift curves, all other steps can be done using pro-surf and pro-STAR with auto
mesh generation. If the user can work more easily in a CAD program, then alternatively most
of the work can be done there.
The alignment and orientation of the cylinder geometry should be consistent with the conven-
tions used in es-ice (Refer to fig A-1). It should be positioned so that the piston motion is par-
allel along the z-axis with the compression stroke moving the piston in the positive z-
direction. The center of the cylinder should be at (x,y) equal to (0,0) and the firedeck should
be at a z-coordinate equal to 0. The piston should be at the TDC position and all of the valves
should be at the closed position. It is also preferred to have the units of the geometry in milli-
meters.
Valve number 1 is considered to be in the first quadrant (+x,+y), valve number 2 is considered
to be in the second quadrant (-x,+y) for four-valve cylinders (or the next valve in the counter-
clockwise direction when viewing the cylinder from above) and so forth. The engine axis is
preferred to be oriented along the y-axis, so that generally the arms extend from the valves in
the ±x directions. If siamesed arms are to be modeled in es-ice (as opposed to being meshed
externally and then imported), only valves 1/4 and valves 2/3 can be paired. Also, when mod-
eling a symmetric 4-valve model, only valves 1 and 2 will be used so the geometry should be
on the +y-side of the x-axis.

(x,y) = (0,0)
valve 1
valve 2
valve 3
valve 4
counter-clockwise direction
of valve numbering
Figure 1-2: Alignment and Orientation of 4-Valve Cylinder Geometry (top view)
valves closed
z=0
piston at TDC
+z
Figure 1-3: Alignment and Orientation of 4-Valve Cylinder Geometry (clipped side view)

The surfaces for the combustion dome, piston crown, ports/arms and valves should be dis-
cretized with triangular (3-sided) shells, quadrilateral (4-sided) shells or a combination of
both. These surfaces are also known as “wetted” or “air-side”. Usually, the CAD geometry
consists of many separate surfaces. When they are discretized with shells, there are usually
vertex mismatches between the separate surfaces that prevent the overall discretized surface
from being completely closed. While this is acceptable for use with the mapping method in es-
ice, the trimming method requires a completely closed surface. The surface discretization will
usually match and be connected between the separate surfaces if the in-cylinder volume can
be converted into a solid body within the CAD program. Note that before doing this, surfaces
may need to be defined on the port faces to close the volume. With the trimming method, it
may also be helpful to import the surface into pro-STAR with auto mesh generation and use
its tools to check, fix and close the surface. This should especially be done at first until experi-
ence shows that the user’s method of discretizing the geometry consistently provides a closed
surface.
Although not required, it is recommended to separate different sections of the model into dif-
ferent cell types. This allows quick and easy isolation and manipulation of certain parts of the
geometry. Usually the combustion dome, piston crown, cylinder liner/wall, ports/arms and
valves are separated in this way.
es-ice can read pro-STAR with auto mesh generation database files (.dbs) as well as cell
(.cel) and vertex (.vrt) files in binary and coded format. The geometry shells can there-
fore be written to any of the mentioned files.
Finally, the valve lift files need to be generated. The valve lift files should be named
vlift0n.dat where n is the integer number of the valve according to the convention
described previously. The data should be in the form of absolute crank angle versus lift in the
units of the geometry (preferably in millimeters). es-ice will interpolate between the data
points and two lift points of 0 value are required: one just before valve opening and another
just after valve closing. es-ice will also automatically apply the appropriate offsets to the
crank angle data when necessary so that multiple cycles are automatically handled.
1.8 Introduction to the Tutorial Example

The tutorial example to be used is a symmetric, four-valve cylinder from a gasoline engine.
Surfaces were created for the +y half of the combustion dome, piston crown, ports/arms and
valves with the model units in millimeters. The geometry is oriented such that the piston trav-
els in the +z direction during compression. The center of the cylinder is (x,y) equal to (0,0)
and the combustion deck is at the z equal to 0 level. The piston is in the TDC position and the
valves are in their respective closed positions. The intake valve is valve 1 and the intake port
arm features a siamese design. The exhaust valve is valve 2 and the exhaust port arm is a sep-
arated design. Other features include angled valves, piston crescent and piston bowl with a
deep spark plug penetrating into it.
The geometry surface is completely closed. The combustion dome, piston, cylinder wall, each
port arm and each valve are separated into different cell types. The complete geometry is

stored in ID 1 of the pro-STAR with auto mesh generation database file, geometry.dbs.
The following table provides some specific numbers:
Bore 90.0 mm
Stroke 87.0 mm
Connecting Rod Length 145.0 mm
Piston Pin Offset 0.0 mm
Engine Speed 2000 rpm
The valve lift files, vlift01.dat and vlift02.dat, are provided with the lift also in
millimeters. For the analysis, the cold-flow intake and compression strokes will be of interest.


Chapter 2 Geometry Import and Valve Work
The tutorial example files used in this chapter are:

geometry.dbs (geometry surface in database ID 1)
The work accomplished to the end of this chapter has been saved to the file:
save_es-ice.1-valves
This chapter will document the early steps in es-ice required to mesh the tutorial example of a
symmetric, four-valve cylinder. The previous chapter documented the preliminary steps nec-
essary before starting es-ice. Now es-ice can be started and the following steps performed:
1. Import the geometry surface
2. Define local coordinate systems for the valves
3. Create and check valve profiles
2.1 Importing the Geometry Surface

After starting es-ice, the discretized surface of the geometry needs to be imported. The follow-
ing file formats for the geometry surface can be imported into es-ice:
pro-STAR with auto mesh generation database files (.dbs)
pro-STAR cell and vertex files (.cel and .vrt)
Note that pro-surf can also export pro-STAR with auto mesh generation database files
(.dbs). Also note that the pro-STAR cell and vertex files (.cel and .vrt) can be in binary
or coded format.
Start es-ice, go to the Select panel and click on the “Read
Data” button to open the Read Tool. This panel is divided into
4 sections: the top section is for importing into the Template
window; the next section below is for importing into the
Geometry window; the next section below is for opening data-
base files; and the final bottom section is for resuming an es-
ice model file.
The surface data to import is stored in the geometry.dbs
file. Since the database file already exists, the “Exists” flag
should be activated in the database section of the Read Tool.
Click the “...” button next to the “Exists” button to open the
File panel, choose the database file and click the “Ok” button
to open it.
After opening the database file, the contents can be listed
with the following command:

dbase,list
The Help window will open and the results of the listing will appear there:
The listing shows that the geometry surface data is saved in ID 1. These shells need to be
imported to the correct window so first activate the Geometry window with the “Geometry”
button in the Plot Tool. Execute the following command to import the data from ID 1:
dbase,get,1
Click the “Cplot” button in the Plot Tool to view the imported geometry surface:
Figure 2-1: Geometry: Imported Geometry Surface
Check that the correct geometry surface was imported and then close the currently open data-
base file by executing the following command:
dbase,close
2.2 Defining a Local Coordinate System for a Valve

After importing the geometry surface, local coordinate systems need to be defined for the
valves. They should be cylindrical coordinate systems with the origins at the centers of the
valves and the local z-axes in the direction of the valve motion.
First, begin by isolating valve 1. Since various parts of the geometry were separated into dif-
ferent cell types before starting es-ice, a valve can easily be isolated with a cursor pick. Use
the pull-down menus on the top of the main es-ice window and choose “Sets” > “Cset” >

“Newset” > “Type, Cursor” (same as the cset,newset,type,cursor command). Left-click any
cell of valve 1 and exit pick mode by clicking on an empty section of the plotting window or
typing q with the cursor in the plotting window. Recall that valve 1 is in the (+x,+y) quadrant
and also recall that es-ice uses a continuous pick mode that requires the user to exit it. All cells
of the same cell type as the picked cell are then selected as the currently active cell set (Cset
0). Click the “Cplot” button in the Plot Tool to plot these cells.
With the cells of valve 1 isolated in the currently active cell set, a local coordinate system can
now be defined easily. It should be cylindrical, the origin should be along the center of the
valve and the local z-axis should be parallel to the valve motion. The z-position of the origin
relative to the valve, the θ-orientation of the coordinate system and the direction of the local z-
axis are unimportant. Execute the following command:
local,11,cylindrical,cursor
This will define a local coordinate system with ID 11 that is cylindrical using three cursor
picks around an arc. With the cursor in pick mode, select three vertices on the upper circular
arc of the maximum valve diameter. It may be helpful to use the dynamic cursor mode.
Figure 2-2: Geometry: Defining Local Coordinate System 11 for Valve 1
The coordinate systems can be displayed in the plotting window by activating the “Local” flag
in the Plot Tool. They can also be listed in the output section of the main es-ice window by
using the pull-down menus and choosing “List” > “CSlist” (same as the cslist command).

2.3 Creating and Checking a Valve Profile

After defining the local valve coordinate system, the valve profile needs to be created. The
valves in es-ice are assumed to be an axisymmetric surface of revolution, so a two-dimen-
sional valve profile needs to be created for each valve to represent the valve shape. The valve
profile is created by using the cursor to pick some important vertices on the valve. Then it can
be converted to a spline and plotted for a visual check.
First, it is important that only the cells of one valve are in the currently active cell set. It may
be helpful to use the “Off” button in the Plot Tool to zoom off and check that there are no other
cells except the valve.
The valve profile is created by picking six key points on the valve. The first point (p1) is on
the bottom of the chamfer. The second point (p2) is on the bottom of the region of maximum
radius. The third point (p3) is on the top of the region of maximum radius. The fourth point
(p4) is at the inner edge of the valve seat. The fifth point (p10) is somewhere between the
valve top and the valve stem. The last point (p20) should be above where the stem becomes a
constant radius. The first four of these points must be picked precisely and the latter two may
be picked at an approximate position. Also recall that the valve profile is two-dimensional so
the local θ-coordinates of the 6 key points are unimportant.
p20
p10
p1
p2
p3
p4
Figure 2-3: Geometry: 6 Key Points to Create Valve Profile
To create the valve profile for valve 1, execute the following command:
valve,image,1,11,cursor
This will create the valve profile in “image” format for valve 1 based on local coordinate sys-
tem 11 using the cursor to pick the key points. The vertices are rotated in the valve coordinate

system to angle 0.0 and are then treated as identical if they are within "tolerance" of each
other. If "tolerance" is zero (or not specified), 0.2 times the width of the seat is used. The
default format of a valve profile is an external file called valve01.dat. The “image” for-
mat, however, stores the information internally in the es-ice model file and is preferred to
reduce the number of external files created. The vertices corresponding to the six key points
mentioned above can now be picked to create the valve profile. It may be helpful to use the
dynamic cursor mode to pick the vertices.
After creating the valve profile, it is displayed as a spline (with the next available spline num-
ber) for visualization purposes. Now check that the spline correctly follows the shape of the
valve.
Figure 2-4: Geometry: Visually Checking Valve Profile with Spline
After visually checking the valve profile spline, it should

be cleared. From the Select panel, click the “Edge or
Spline” button to open the Edge/Spline Tool. Click the
“Clear spline” button, click any knot of the spline to clear
it and then click on an empty section of the window or type
q to quit the pick mode.
2.4 Using the Provided Panel for Valve Work

After working on valve 1, the same steps must be repeated
for valve 2: define the local coordinate system as well as
create and check the valve profile. The previous sections
detailed the work on valve 1, but the current section will

use a panel that is provided to do the work on valve 2. It is easier and quicker to use the panel
for the valve work and it is recommended to use it in the future, but it is also important in the
beginning to understand the details.
First, put all the geometry shells into the currently active cell set and plot it so that the cursor
can be used to isolate the cells of valve 2 by cell type. Use the pull-down menus and choose
“Sets” > “Cset” > “All” (same as the cset,all command) and plot it. Then choose “Sets” >
“Cset” > “Newset” > “Type, Cursor” (same as the cset,newset,type,cursor command) and iso-
late the cells of valve 2. Click the “Cplot” button in the Plot Tool to plot these cells.
Then use the pull-down menus and choose “Panels” > “Directory”. Enter the directory loca-
tion of the provided panel and then choose it from the “Panels” pull-down menu to open it.
Click the “valve 2 csys 12” button and use the cursor as before to pick three vertices on the
upper circular arc of the maximum valve diameter to define the local coordinate system for
valve 2. Note that the panel button will also plot this new coordinate system and list it.
Click the “valve 2 profile” button and use the cursor as before to pick the six key points on
valve 2 to create its profile. Note that the panel button will also convert it to a spline and plot
it so that it can be visually checked. Remember to clear the spline when finished.
2.5 Saving the Model

The user should save the work to this point in an es-ice model
file. The default name that is given to the file is save_es-ice.
It is recommended to have multiple model files during the mod-
eling process with identifying extensions to represent the user’s
work at different stages. This allows the user to resume from a
previous stage, if necessary.
Click the “Write Data” button in the Select panel to open the
Write Tool. This panel is divided into 4 sections: the top section is
for setting file-writing options; the next section below is for writ-
ing vertices, cells and couples; the next section below is for writing database files; and the
final bottom section is for saving the es-ice model file. Note that when saving the model file,
the file-writing options at the top of this panel are not used.
Add an identifying extension to save_es-ice in the input field at the bottom of the Write
Tool and click the “Save” button to save the model. The work to this point has been saved to
the save_es-ice.1-valves file of the tutorial example files.

Chapter 3 Meshing with the Trimming Method
The work accomplished to the beginning of this chapter can be resumed from the file:
The tutorial example files used in this chapter are:
vlift01.dat (valve lift file for valve 1)
The work accomplished in this chapter has been intermittently saved to the files:
save_es-ice.2-beforetrim
save_es-ice.3-final
The mesh can be generated using the new “trimming” method or the original “mapping”
method. This chapter will cover the trimming method while the next chapter will cover the
mapping method.
A new method for creating the mesh using trim cell technology, as incorporated in pro-STAR
with auto mesh generation, will be covered in this chapter. This new method cuts the tem-
plate to the surface of the geometry, thus reducing the time and skill required to use the origi-
nal mapping method.
The meshing process using the trimming method can be divided into five major steps:
1. Modifying special cell sets of the geometry
2. Creating splines on geometry features
3. Creating the 2D base template
4. Creating the 3D template
5. Trimming the 3D template to the geometry
3.1 Modifying Special Cell Sets of the Geometry

There are special, numbered cell sets of the geometry that need to be modified. This requires
isolating various groups of geometry shells into the currently active cell set and then saving
them into one of the 3 special cell sets of the geometry. To see a listing of the special cell sets,
check that the Geometry window is active and then use the pull-down menus to choose “Sets”
> “Cset” > “List” (same as the cset,list command).

Under the “Set” column is the ID number of the cell set with Cset 0 being the currently active
cell set. An “L” to the left of the ID number denotes a locked cell set which helps prevent acci-
dental modifications and overwrites. Under the “Count” column is the number of cells that are
in each cell set and to the right of this is a text label to help with identification (for Cset 0, the
text label is the minimum and maximum cell ID numbers).
The geometry shells of the cylinder wall need to be saved into Geometry Cset 1. For symmet-
ric models such as the current tutorial example, the shells of the symmetry plane should also
be saved into Geometry Cset 1. First, isolate these shells by cell type as was previously done
for the valves (the shells of the cylinder wall and symmetry plane are the same cell type).
Since Geometry Cset 1 is locked by default, it must be unlocked before saving and then
locked again afterwards. Click the “G: cylinder shells 1” button of the provided user panel or
use the pull-down menus to choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Unlock” > “1 Cylinder shells” (same
as the cset,unlock,1 command) to unlock the cell set, choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Save” > “1
Cylinder shells” (same as the cset,save,1 command) to save it and choose “Sets” > “Cset” >
“Lock” > “1 Cylinder shells” (same as the cset,lock,1 command) to lock the cell set again. The
same procedure must be repeated to save the shells of the piston into Geometry Cset 2 and the
entire trimming surface (all surfaces except for the valves) into Geometry Cset 3, which is not
a locked cell set.

Figure 3-1: Geometry: Shells of the Cylinder Wall with Symmetry Plane (top left), Piston (top
right) and Trimming Surface (bottom)
3.2 Creating Splines for Geometry Features

Next, we need to define geometric features on the Cylinder dome, Piston and Ports. Similar to
pro-STAR with auto mesh generation, splines in the geometry can be created based on an
angle. With the trimming surface shells from Geometry Cset 3 on the screen, type the follow-
ing command to create these splines with the default feature angle of 30 degrees:
spline,angle

The splines can then be cleaned up by deleting, creating

and modifying them. Click the “Edge or Spline” button in
the Select panel to bring up the Edge/Spline Tool panel. To
clear a spline, click the “Clear spline” button and then
click on a knot of a spline. Remember that continuous pick
mode is active so quitting it is necessary.
To create a new spline, click the “Create” button. The new
spline will have the next highest available ID number.
Left-click on vertices to create the spline. The default
“Chain” option for “Pick Knot” will attempt to add edge-
connecting, intervening vertices if possible. “Vertex” is
the only other valid option for “Pick Knot” when using the
trimming method. Since the splines will be converted into
line cells for the trimming, they need to follow mesh lines and their knots must be on vertices.
Existing splines may be modified with several useful buttons. Splines may be appended and
prepended to by clicking on the “Append” or “Prepend” buttons, respectively. The user then
must click a knot of the spline that they wish to append or prepend to and may then begin add-
ing new points.
Remember that it is useful to look at the text on the bottom of the Geometry window to look for
special mouse options. The most useful features are the dynamic mode entered by typing d
and the ability to regret a pick by a middle-click of the mouse.
Two of the splines that should be cleared are the ones around the holes in the port where it
intersects the valve stems. This intersection between the valve stem and port will automati-
cally be converted into a feature line by es-ice and thus is not necessary for us to specify.
Short, isolated splines should also be cleared since they were most likely incorrectly generated
due to the discretized surface quality. Additional splines should be created on the dome for the
intersection between the flat squish region and the angled dome region. An additional spline
should also be created at the +y side of the dome around the cylinder radius at the intersection
between the cylinder wall and dome cells. To improve the quality of the coarse mesh for this
tutorial, a spline was created around the approximate midpoint of the filleted area of the spark
plug geometry.
Once the user is satisfied with the splines, they need to be saved into Sset 3 so that es-ice uses
them for the trimming process. To do this, make sure you have all the splines that you want to
use for the trimming process in the currently active spline set which can seen on the screen.
Then use the pull-down menus and choose “Sets” > “Sset” > “Save” > “3 Trimming features”
(same as the sset,save,3 command).

Figure 3-2: Geometry: Splines Used for Trimming
3.3 Creating the 2D Base Template

The first step to creating the 2D base template is to set some
parameters in the General parameters and Events parameters
panels. Click the “Create Template” button in the Select panel
to open the Create Template panel.
Now click the “General” button to open the General parame-
ters panel. Change the “Base style” to “2/4 Valve”, which is
the option for modeling a symmetric half of a 4-valve engine.
Check that the “Engine type” is “Gasoline” and the “Cylinder
radius” is “45”. All the other parameters in this panel are not
used with the trimming method. Click the “Ok” button on the
bottom left of the panel to accept the values and close the
panel (“Apply” will accept the values but keep the panel
open).
Next, click the “Events” button in the Create Template panel to open the Events parameters
panel. Since the example analysis will only be the intake and compression strokes, the starting
crank angle will be the 0 lift point before the valve begins to move (see vlift01.dat). Set

the “Crank angle start (deg)” to “350” and “Crank angle stop (deg)” to “720”. Check that the
“Engine RPM” is set to “2000”, the “Connecting rod length” is set to “145”, the “Piston pin
offset” is set to “0” and the “Valve lift periodicity (deg)” is set to “720” and click “Ok”.
Figure 3-3: Modified General parameters and Events parameters Panels

In the Create Template panel, click the “Sections...” button

and select “Section 1” to open the Section 1 Tool panel. This
panel will help us to create the 2D mesh in a quadrant
around valve 1.
First click on the upper “Load” button located next to the
valve01.dat field to load the internal valve information
for valve 1. Then click on the “Create” button to make the
Template window active and plot the section.
Figure 3-4: Template: Section 1 After Loading Valve

Information
The mesh of this section needs to be modified next. The

cell density in the valve region is a major factor affecting
the overall cell count of the model and is controlled by the
number of circumferential cells around the valve. Click
the “Valve 2D ...” button in the Create Template panel and
choose “Valve 1” to open the Valve 1 2D parameters panel.
For this tutorial example, a coarse model will be built so
change the “Circumferential cells (section)” parameter at
the top of the panel to a value of “48” and click “Ok”. To
see the result of this modification, click the “Create” but-
ton in the Section 1 Tool panel.
For most mesh adjustments, it is generally useful and eas-
ier to use the cursor in a graphical interactive mode. Click
the “Adjust” button in the Section 1 Tool panel and notice
the several red dots appearing on the plotting window.
Interactive GUI tools can then be used to alter the section
until a mesh of reasonable cell size and quality is created.

Adjusts “Bottom ring

radial cells”
Adjusts number of
circumferential cells
around valve
Adjusts
“Outer ring
radial cells”
Figure 3-5: Template: Section 1 in “Adjust” Mode
The red dot in the center of the valve grid can also be used to change the number of circumfer-
ential cells around the valve. Notice the text on the bottom of the Template window when mov-
ing the cursor over this red dot. A left-click or middle-click will decrease or increase,
respectively, the value by 2; a right-click will reset the value to the default of 72; typing a
number followed by a left-click or right-click will decrease or increase, respectively, the value
by that typed number; typing u or r will successively undo or redo, respectively, the latest
adjustments; and clicking with any mouse button off the mesh in an empty part of the window
or typing q will quit the adjust mode.
The valve mesh is known as an O-grid, being made up of a 12x12 cartesian mesh with 1 layer
of polar mesh surrounding it. This polar mesh is called the “Bottom ring radial cells” and is
shown in the Valve 1 2D parameters panel. The red dot associated with this parameter is located
along the mesh line of the core cartesian grid. To improve the quality of the outer cells of this
core cartesian grid, we can add another layer of polar mesh. Place the cursor over this red dot
and middle-click to increase “Bottom ring radial cells” from the default of 1 to a value of 2.

We also want to coarsen the polar mesh around the valve region called the “Outer ring radial
cells”. Left-click with the cursor over this red dot to decrease this from the default of 5 to a
value of 4. The “Inner ring radial cells” can be left with the default of 1..
Figure 3-6: Template: Section 1 After Valve Modifications
The next major areas of modification are the 3 triangular regions on the corners of the section.
There are 2 issues with these regions: one is the placement of the corner attachment points and
the other is the cell density within these regions. Move the cursor over the upper red dot of the
triangular region in the bottom right corner of the section and notice again the text on the bot-
tom of the window.

2. Left-click to
choose new
attachment point
1. Left-click
to choose
Figure 3-7: Template: Adjusting Attachment Point of Triangular Region
Left-click to choose this point to be adjusted. All other red dots will become clear and the text
will then change to the following:
We can now select a vertex up on the radial perimeter of the section to be the new attachment
point. Left-click the vertex that is 4 positions away in the counter-clockwise direction. Notice
the improvement in the interior angles connected to the new attachment point and the
improved orthogonality in the region outside the valve, especially the area closest to the cylin-
der wall.
Similar improvements can be made by using the same steps on the other three triangular
regions. The triangular region located on the lower-right can have the left attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the lower-left can
have the right attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the top attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the upper-left can
have the bottom attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the right attachment

point moved clockwise by two positions. This will result in more consistently sized cells in
the “Outer ring radial cells” region.
Figure 3-8: Template: Section 1 After Attachment Point Adjustments
Since the spark plug is located in the triangular region on the lower-left of section 1, it would
be good to increase the cell density there. Move the cursor over the red dot located in the cen-
ter of this triangular region and notice the text on the bottom of the plotting window. Notice
the 3 red dots in the middle of each edge of the triangular region and the change in text.

2. Middle-click
to increase
1. Left-click
to choose
Figure 3-9: Template: Changing Cell Count Within a Triangular Region
The cell density and distribution of the triangular region is controlled by increasing or
decreasing the number of cell layers from the center to each of the 3 edges. Middle-click the
red dot on the interior of the section twice to add two additional cell layers between the center
to that corresponding edge. Then quit the adjustment of the triangular region by clicking off
the mesh or typing q on the keyboard. The increase in cell density for that triangular region
can then be seen.

Figure 3-10: Template: Final Section 1
Section 1 now has acceptable cell size and cell quality. Type q with the cursor in the window
or click in an empty part of the window to quit the adjust mode. Section 2 can now be built in
a similar way. Starting with the valve region, the “Load” button can be clicked to load the
valve information, the number of circumferential cells should be reduced to 40 and the “Outer
ring radial cells” can be left at the default value of 5. Usually the exhaust valve is smaller than
the intake valve and thus the exhaust valve section should have less circumferential cells but
more “Outer ring radial cells” than the intake valve section to maintain a consistent cell spac-
ing. Similar to section 1, the “Bottom ring radial cells” should be increased to 2. These modi-
fications can be made with the GUI tools or the Valve 2 2D parameters panel can be modified
directly, “Ok” can be clicked and then the “Create” button in the Section 2 Tool panel can be
clicked to see the effect of these changes.

It is helpful to specify a few extra parameters when work-

ing with a recessed valve such as valve 2. Inspection of the
geometry reveals an axisymmetric “step” feature that is a
radial distance of 16.5 millimeters in that local valve coor-
dinate system. Click the “Edit section parameters” button in
the Section 2 Tool panel to be able to edit various parameters
directly. The valve radius can be seen to be 15.5 millime-
ters so change the “Valve border width” to be a value of
“1”. This will force the outer radial cell layer nearest to the
valve to be a concentric ring of cells with a radial cell
length of 1 millimeter with the inner and outer circular
mesh lines at 15.5 and 16.5 millimeters, respectively, in
radial distance from the center of the local cylindrical valve
coordinate system. Forcing this outer mesh line to corre-
spond with the geometric feature of the recessed valve will
result in a better trimmed mesh.
The attachment points and cell densities of the triangular
regions can be adjusted similarly to those of section 1.
With every modification that is made, the es-ice window
will update the number of cells on each side of the shared
interface. Only when they are equal is the user able to con-
tinue. Click “Store sections” in the Create Template panel to
connect and smooth the mesh of the 2 sections together.

Figure 3-11: Template: Completed 2D Base Template
3.4 Creating the 3D Template

Now that the 2D template has been created, the user can adjust the remaining parameters
through the Create Template panel for the third dimension of the template. Note that in general,
a value of “0” in the parameter boxes denotes a default value calculated by es-ice for the
geometry. It is recommended to initially use as many parameter defaults as possible.
Click on the “Valves ...” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Valve 1 parameters
panel. Change “Style” to be “Trimmed” and many parameters will become unavailable for
editing. Not only will there be less valve parameters available but also no arm parameters
associated with the “Arms ...” button in the Create Template panel will be used. By looking at
the valve lift files, it can be seen that the maximum valve lift for valve 1 is close to 9.4 milli-
meters. Enter a value of “9.4” for “Reference lift”. es-ice will try to keep the vertical cell spac-
ing in the valve curtain to be the “Reference lift” divided by the “Reference cells”. For this
tutorial example, we will accept a cell spacing of around 1 millimeter so edit the “Reference
cells” parameter to be a value of “9”. At the bottom of the panel, change the “Exclude on
close” parameter to “Yes”. This will exclude the port above valve 1 from the solution when
the valve closes for the last time during the analysis range. This provides increased stability
and a small speed-up. The other values can be left to their default values and the “Ok” button
can be clicked to apply the values and close the panel. Repeat for valve 2.

Figure 3-12: 3D Parameters for Valves 1 and 2 (See graph A-19)
Next click on the “Cylinder” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Cylinder param-
eters panel. Since the stroke for our tutorial example is 87 millimeters, fill in “87” for the “Pis-
ton stroke length”. All other parameters can be left at their default values. Click the “Ok”
button when finished.
Click the yellow “Trim” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Trim parameters
panel. Change the “Template to trim” option to “Yes”. The “Piston DZ” parameter will auto-
matically move the piston by the amount specified before trimming. Recall that the piston
should currently be in the TDC position, but the trimming of the template should be done with
the piston moved a few millimeters lower to allow enough volume for several cylinder layers
to exist. This will allow es-ice to setup deletion layers in the cylinder between the dome and
piston. Enter a value of “-10” for “Piston DZ”, which is a good value to start with for most

cases. The next time the Geometry window is plotted, you will see that the piston has physi-
cally moved by that amount specified. Finally, select a value of “1” for the “Cell height” so
that the template cell layers are created with a height of approximately 1 millimeter, which
should be very close to the cell height in the valve curtain as previously defined. Leave all
other parameters unmodified and click “Ok” to continue.
Figure 3-13: Modified Cylinder and Trim Parameters
After all the parameters have been set, click the “Make Template” button in the Create Tem-
plate panel to make the template and write its information to a file called save_ice by
default. Next click the “Read Template” button to read the 3D template into the current work-
ing session and plot it onto the screen. Notice that new local coordinate systems are created
which are re-oriented such that it is on the bottom of the closed valve and the xy-rotation is 0
(coordinate system ID numbers 13 and 14).

Figure 3-14: Template: 3D Template for Trimming
The user is recommended to save the work up to this point by saving the current working ses-
sion into a new save_es-ice filename using the Write Tool panel. The work to this point
has been saved to the save_es-ice.2-beforetrim file of the tutorial example files.
3.5 Trimming the 3D Template to the Geometry

The pro-STAR with auto mesh generation executable that will be used for the trimming is
called ammbatch. By default, es-ice will use the ammbatch from the path of the STARDIR
environment variable that was set when es-ice was started. It is usually recommended to use
the latest release version. If you have multiple pro-STAR with auto mesh generation ver-
sions installed on your system and you need to use a different ammbatch executable than the
one from your current STARDIR setting, use the bamm,execute,<filename> command where
the <filename> is the new executable.

Click the green “Trim” button on the lower right-hand corner of

the Create Template panel to open the Trim panel. Then click the
“Cut” button to begin the trimming process. es-ice will automat-
ically separate the different regions of the model and trim them.
Once the trimming is finished, click the “Status” button in the
Trim panel. This provides information about the separated
regions of the model that were trimmed individually. Included in
the output is the number of cells for each separated region as
well as the number of unresolved cells in parenthesis.
If the check fails, then first verify that the correct vertices are in Template Vset 10. Using the
Trim parameters panel, click the “Get” button with the default “Cylinder” option to load the
cylinder part of the mesh and also put the vertices currently in Template Vset 10 into the cur-
rently active vertex set. Make sure that the vertex display is activated through the Plot Tool and
check that the vertices on the screen all belong to the cylinder wall or symmetry plane. These
vertices were automatically collected by es-ice, but sometimes the trimming process causes
incorrect vertices to be chosen and it may affect the check. If these vertices are correct, then
the trimming needs to be repeated with the piston further away from the combustion dome. To
do this, lower the “Piston DZ” parameter in the Trim parameters panel, click the “Make Tem-
plate” and “Read Template” buttons again in the Create Template panel and trim again.
If there are missing vertices in the default Template Vset 10, then additional vertices can be
added with cursor picks by using the pull-down menus and choosing “Sets” > “Vset” > “Add”
> “Cursor” (same as the vset,add,cursor command). Simi-
larly, incorrect vertices can be deleted with the cursor by
using the pull-down menus and choosing “Sets” > “Vset” >
“Delete” > “Cursor” (same as the vset,delete,cursor com-
mand). Once the correct vertices are in the currently active
vertex set, save them into Template Vset 10 which is labelled
“Cylinder wall vertices”. Click the “Put” button without
changing the “Cylinder” option so that the cylinder mesh and
the vertices in Template Vset 10 are saved. Then click the
“Check” button again from the Trim panel. If the check fails
again, then the trimming needs to be repeated with the piston
further away from the combustion dome.
If es-ice fails to create the trimmed template with the message
"The curtain is not well defined ...", you can try to fix the
trimmed grid and continue.
1 - Trim,Recover,Get
This command brings the offending grid into es-ice. The goal
is to have the cell faces of the valve curtain be quadrilaterals whose vertices are the vertices of
the user mesh that was presented to samm for trimming. You can delete cells by removing
them from the current Cset. You can add cells with "Cdx" as explained in the next section.
The cell type of any added cells should be 1. You can change a cell's type with "ModCT".

2 - Trim,Recover,Parent
So that es-ice can locate the cell layers, it asks samm to provide (for each cell in the trimmed
grid) the ID of the cell (the "Parent" cell) that it came from in the user grid. For most cells the
Parent cell has the same ID as the cell. If you add cells to the grid, you must tell es-ice what
their parents are, with "Trim,Recover,Parent,parent,child". There are two ways to find what
the parent cell should be:
a - "Trim,Recover,Parent,List" lists all the parent cells, if they are not the same as the cell.
Your new cell should have the same parent as the cell(s) it replaces.
b - The user grid is structured, so the parent cell will be at a consistent offset from the parent
cells of the cell's neighbors.
3 - Trim,Recover,Put
This command puts the repaired grid back into the database and continues the trimming. Be
sure to have all (and only) the cells you want in the grid in the current Cset.
3.6 Resolving Cells with es-ice

After the check has passed, each region should be loaded and checked. For the “Cylinder”,
make sure that there are no 3-sided faces on the side walls of the valve region. Those faces
will be used as attachment boundaries which require 4-sided faces. A message is provided
from the “Status” button in the Trim panel if these cells exist and need to be fixed. The user
should also plot with the fill option ‘off’ to check for any internal faces in the model for each
part. An internal face signifies a bad couple. The couple must be re-defined and it may involve
deleting and creating new cells as given below. (Note that the attachment boundaries are also
seen as internal faces in the model and should not be modified).
If there are any unresolved cells, choose the appropriate region through the options in the Trim
panel and click the “Get” button to load it.
Clicking the small “D” button enters pick mode and the user can use the cursor to pick cells to
delete. The picked cells are then specially marked as being deleted and moved from the cur-
rently active cell set to a hidden, internal Cset. The cells that are deleted with this button will
not be saved to the database when the “Put” button is clicked.
Clicking the small “U” button brings back all the cells temporarily and enters pick mode. The
user can then use the cursor to pick cells to undelete. After quitting this function, the picked
cells are then unmarked as being deleted and moved back into the currently active cell set
while the other deleted cells are removed again from the currently active cell set.
To create cells, first click the “Cdx” button in the lower-right corner of the Trim panel to open
the Cdx Tool panel. (It can also be opened by typing the command ‘cdx’). Then click the “Cdx”
button in the Cdx Tool panel to enter pick mode. The user can then middle-click or right-click
to toggle between various cell shapes and the image in the panel will be updated. The output
text in the es-ice window will also indicate the current shape. Not only can the view of the

mesh be changed by entering the dynamic mode and using the cursor, but the view of the
image of the shape in the panel can also be changed to make it easier to match the views.
When finished, click the “Put” button to automatically save the modified mesh to the correct
database ID number.
3.7 Adding Extrusion Layers to Port Faces

It is useful to add an extrusion layer to each of the port faces where boundary conditions will
be applied. This will eliminate the possibility of faces 7 or 8 of a trimmed cell existing on the
surface (recall that boundaries cannot be defined on faces 7 or 8 of a trimmed cell).
This can be done by first choosing a port from the pop-up menus and then clicking “Get” to
load the port. Create an edge around the port face and then a patch on the port face. Then type
the following command:
pextrude,cursor,1,.5
Left-click the created patch to create 1 layer of 0.5mm thick cells outwardly normal to the
picked patch. Recall that a left-click on an empty part of the plotting window or a keyboard
input of q will quit the pick mode. Then clear the edge and patch since they are no longer
needed. It may be easier to use the pclear,<patch_id> command to clear the patch since it
cannot be picked with the cursor unless an extruded cell is deleted from the currently active
cell set.
Figure 3-15: Template: Exhaust Port Before (left) and After (right) Creating Extrusion Layer
The modified port can now be automatically saved to the appropriate database ID number by
clicking the “Put” button. Repeat for the other port.
Optionally, an extrusion layer can be added to the piston for trimmed meshes. To add an
extrusion layer to the piston, first “Get” the “Cylinder” mesh using the Trim panel. Create an
edge around the perimeter of the piston and then create a patch on the piston surface. The edge
can then be cleared and the “Cylinder” can be “Put” so that the patch information is saved to
the internal database. Specify the “Extrusion” parameter at the bottom of the Trim panel for the
extrusion thickness. If the “Piston only” button is checked, it will create an extrusion layer

only on the piston. Else, it will create an extrusion layer on the entire model. The ‘full extru-
sion layer’ feature is not fully tested and thus it is not fully supported. As a result, the tutorial
example model does not include the full extrusion layer and an image of the result of its
implementation is not available.
Note that the piston extrusion layer will not be immediately visible, even after the trimmed
template is assembled because it is added during the “Star Setup” procedure described later. It
can be seen in a created result and in the mesh that is imported into pro-STAR.
3.8 Assembling the Trimmed Template

Once all unresolved cells have been fixed, the extrusion layers have been added to both port
faces and the mesh in each region is acceptable, we can assemble them together. This is done
by clicking the “Assemble” button in the Trim panel. es-ice will combine the individual parts
together and the mesh will be complete.
has been saved to the save_es-ice.3-final file of the tutorial example files.
Recall that the next chapter should be skipped since it covers meshing with the mapping
method.



Chapter 4 Meshing with the Mapping Method
The work accomplished to the beginning of this chapter can be resumed from the file:
The tutorial files used in this chapter are:
exhaust.dbs (exhaust port mesh from pro-STAR with auto mesh
generation)
The work accomplished in this chapter has been intermittently saved to the files:
save_es-ice.2-template
save_es-ice.3-flat
save_es-ice.4-final
The mesh can be generated using the new “trimming” method or the original “mapping”
method. This chapter will cover the mapping method while the previous chapter covered the
trimming method.
As an alternative to meshing with the trimming method, the original mapping method may be
used to create the mesh. This method involves the mapping of surface vertices to the shells of
the geometry through the use of edges, splines and patches.
The meshing process using the mapping method can be divided into five major steps:
1. Creating the 2D base template
2. Creating the 3D template
3. Creating edges, splines and patches based on geometry features
4. Mapping the 3D template surface to the geometry
5. Meshing the piston
4.1 Creating the Stub Surface in the Geometry

es-ice gives the user the option to create a mesh for arms externally, via a software package
such as pro-STAR with auto mesh generation. The externally-created arms may then be
read into es-ice and matched with the rest of the model via an arbitrary interface. Typically,
this interface is shaped like a stair step and is called a “stub”. For the example in this manual,
the exhaust port above valve 2 will be meshed in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation. As
a result, a stub surface must be first created in the geometry to serve as an interface between
the es-ice and pro-STAR with auto mesh generation meshes.

We create a stub shell surface by first creating splines that define the corners of the shell sur-
face. We then create shells that span across the splines and define the surface. Usually, four
splines are needed to do this. Two of those splines will be created on the geometry and the
other two splines will be created inside the geometry.
First, turn on the “Show large cross with cursor” option
from the ‘Plot Options panel’ as described in section
A.1.3. This will help to create all splines accurately at the
same theta position. Then, isolate valve 2 and inspect the
valve stem. Find a vertex on a lower section of the valve
stem, above which is constant radius, and create a circular
spline there. This can be done by clicking the “Edge or
Spline” button in the Select panel and clicking the “Point
Circle” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. A left-click
with the mouse on a vertex will now create a circular
spline with the next highest available ID number using the
closest, cylindrical coordinate system which will be the
local valve coordinate system for valve 2. Type q with the
cursor in the window or click on an empty part of the win-
dow to quit the pick mode and accept the spline. Since there were no other existing splines,
the created spline has an ID of 1.

Figure 4-1: Geometry: Circular Spline Created Around Valve 2
In anticipation of future events, renumber this first spline to have an ID of 51 with the follow-
ing command:
spline,1,renumber,51
Future splines that are created will then use ID numbers larger than this, thus leaving the
lower ID numbers free for default splines to be created later.
Next, isolate the valve seat and port arm areas for the exhaust side and inspect the geometry
shells between them. Find a vertex on the highest section of the valve seat shells that is as
close as possible to the circumferential position of the previously used vertex on the valve
stem. The large cross will be helpful in this process. This will reduce skew in the geometry
shells of the stub when they are created later. Similar to the way the previous spline was cre-
ated, click the “Point Circle” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel, left-click on a vertex to cre-
ate another concentric spline and type q with the cursor in the window or click on an empty
part of the window to accept the spline.
Figure 4-2: Geometry: Circular Spline Around Valve Seat and Port
These two splines were created on the surface geometry. Two more splines need to be created
inside the model. View all the geometry shells in a section view through the exhaust valve

centerline. The section point should be defined as the origin of the local valve coordinate sys-
tem and the section normal defined as the global +y-direction with the following commands:
spoint,0,0,0,12
snorm,0,1,0
Then collect all the cells of the geometry by using the pull-down menus and choosing “Sets” >
“Cset” > “All” (same as the cset,all command). Also, use the Plot Tool panel to set the plot type
to be a section by clicking the “Section” button, set the view to be the same as the section nor-
mal by choosing “View Snormal” in the “Views” options and click “Cplot” to plot the result.
We can make measurements in the local valve coordinate system from the section plot using
the following command:
sxyz,12,relative
This command will give relative distances between successively selected points in the coordi-
nates of coordinate system 12. These relative distances are what will be used to create the final
two splines for the stub. One spline will be created radially outward from the first spline cre-
ated on the valve stem such that there is room for at least a few cells radially in both the stub
and the externally generated mesh. The other spline will be created below it and slightly radi-
ally outward such that it is not too close to the valve surface and that the two flat surfaces con-
nected to this spline are approximately parallel with the top surface of the valve and with the
lower portion of the valve stem. Click on approximately the three points shown in the follow-
ing figure and then type q with the cursor in the window to quit the command.
2 1

Figure 4-3: Geometry: Points Picked During sxyz Command
The text output in the es-ice window should be similar to the following:
The first line shows the relative distances from the origin of coordinate system 12 to the first
point which approximately represents a point on the spline created on valve stem. This can be
ignored. The second line shows the relative distances from the first point to the second point.
We will be using the approximate relative radial distance to create one spline. The third line
shows the relative distances from the second point to the third point. We will be using the
approximate relative radial and axial distances to create the other spline. Type the following
commands to create spline 53 radially outward from spline 51 and then create spline 54 radi-
ally outward and axially downward from spline 53:
spline,51,to,53,1.5,0,0,12
spline,53,to,54,2.5,0,-18,12
Figure 4-4: Geometry: All Four Splines Created for Stub Surface

At this stage, we have the four splines that are needed to create the stub shell surface. If we
return to a hidden view, select an isometric viewing angle and delete all the cells from the cur-
rent cell set, we will easily be able to see the effect of the subsequent commands. We then cre-
ate a layer of shells with cell type 22 between each pair of splines which represents our stub
surface:
sshell,51,53,1,22
sshell,53,54,1,22
sshell,54,52,1,22
Please see below, the pictures of the correct and incorrect stub surface. These pictures empha-
size the importance of having the splines start at the same theta position. This is also important
while mapping the edges with the splines, as will be seen later.
Figure 4-5: Geometry: Correct Stub (Top left), Incorrect Stub (Top right) and Section
(Bottom) of Stub Surface

The necessary cells can now be exported to a database file so that pro-STAR with auto mesh
generation can be used to mesh them. Gather the stub, exhaust valve and port into the cur-
rently active cell set and remove all splines from the currently active spline set. Click the
“Read Data” button in the Select panel to open the Read Tool panel. Type the filename
exhaust-proam.dbs into the input field next to the “Dbase” button and deactivate the
“Exists” button since this will be a new file. Click the “Dbase” button to open a new database
file called exhaust-proam.dbs. Type the following commands to put the cells and verti-
ces in the currently active cell set into database ID 1 as a surface definition entitled “Exhaust
valve+port+stub” and close the database file:
dbase,put,1,surface
Exhaust valve+port+stub
dbase,close
Now this database file may be used in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation to generate the
necessary mesh. For the purposes of this tutorial example, the exhaust port mesh is assumed to
have already been created in the exhaust.dbs file along with the other tutorial example
files.
4.2 Creating the 2D Base Template

The first step to creating the 2D base template is to set some
parameters in the General parameters and Events parameters
panels. Click the “Create Template” button in the Select panel
to open the Create Template panel.
Now click the “General” button to open the General parame-
ters panel. Change the “Base style” to “2/4 Valve”, which is
the option for modeling a symmetric half of a 4-valve engine.
Check that the “Engine type” is “Gasoline” and the “Cylinder
radius” is “45”. Click the “Ok” button on the bottom left of
the panel to accept the values and close the panel (“Apply”
will accept the values but keep the panel open).
Next, click the “Events” button in the Create Template panel to
open the Events parameters panel. Since the example analysis will only be the intake and com-
pression strokes, the starting crank angle will be the 0 lift point before the valve begins to
move (see vlift01.dat). Set the “Crank angle start (deg)” to “350” and “Crank angle stop
(deg)” to “720”. Check that the “Engine RPM” is set to “2000”, the “Connecting rod length”
is set to “145”, the “Piston pin offset” is set to “0” and the “Valve lift periodicity (deg)” is set
to “720” and click “Ok”.

Figure 4-6: Modified General parameters and Events parameters Panels
In the Create Template panel, click the “Sections...” button

and select “Section 1” to open the Section 1 Tool panel. This
panel will help us to create the 2D mesh in a quadrant
around valve 1.
First click on the upper “Load” button located next to the
valve01.dat field to load the internal valve information
for valve 1. Then click on the “Create” button to make the
Template window active and plot the section.
Figure 4-7: Template: Section 1 After Loading Valve

Information

The mesh of this section needs to be modified next. The

cell density in the valve region is a major factor affecting
the overall cell count of the model and is controlled by the
number of circumferential cells around the valve. Click
the “Valve 2D ...” button in the Create Template panel and
choose “Valve 1” to open the Valve 1 2D parameters panel.
For this tutorial example, a coarse model will be built so
change the “Circumferential cells (section)” parameter at
the top of the panel to a value of “48” and click “Ok”. To
see the result of this modification, click the “Create” but-
ton in the Section 1 Tool panel.
For most mesh adjustments, it is generally useful and eas-
ier to use the cursor in a graphical interactive mode. Click
the “Adjust” button in the Section 1 Tool panel and notice
the several red dots appearing on the plotting window.
Interactive GUI tools can then be used to alter the section
until a mesh of reasonable cell size and quality is created.
Adjusts “Bottom ring

radial cells”
Adjusts number of
circumferential cells
around valve
Adjusts
“Outer ring
radial cells”
Figure 4-8: Template: Section 1 in “Adjust” Mode

The red dot in the center of the valve grid can also be used to change the number of circumfer-
ential cells around the valve. Notice the text on the bottom of the Template window when mov-
ing the cursor over this red dot. A left-click or middle-click will decrease or increase,
respectively, the value by 2; a right-click will reset the value to the default of 72; typing a
number followed by a left-click or right-click will decrease or increase, respectively, the value
by that typed number; typing u or r will successively undo or redo, respectively, the latest
adjustments; and clicking with any mouse button off the mesh in an empty part of the window
or typing q will quit the adjust mode.
The valve mesh is known as an O-grid, being made up of a 12x12 cartesian mesh with 1 layer
of polar mesh surrounding it. This polar mesh is called the “Bottom ring radial cells” and is
shown in the Valve 1 2D parameters panel. The red dot associated with this parameter is located
along the mesh line of the core cartesian grid. To improve the quality of the outer cells of this
core cartesian grid, we can add another layer of polar mesh. Place the cursor over this red dot
and middle-click to increase “Bottom ring radial cells” from the default of 1 to a value of 2.
We also want to coarsen the polar mesh around the valve region called the “Outer ring radial
cells”. Left-click with the cursor over this red dot twice to decrease this from the default of 5
to a value of 3. The “Inner ring radial cells” can be left with the default of 1.
Figure 4-9: Template: Section 1 After Valve Modifications

If there are ways to match some areas of the 2D base template with features of the cylinder
dome, this should be attempted. For this tutorial example, there is a feature between the flat
and angled portions of the combustion deck that can be matched with a mesh line in Section 1.
This mesh line can be obtained by adding a special triangular region to the section. From our
view of looking down from the +z axis, we notice that this geometry feature is to the right of
valve 1. Therefore we quit the adjust mode and in the Section 1 Tool panel, we change the
“Right triangle exists” option to “Yes” and click the “Create” button. Note that the new trian-
gular region can not be seen immediately as an adjustment needs to be made.
To match the section grid line from the new “Right triangle” to the appropriate geometry fea-
ture, the double-plotting feature will be used. The double-plotting feature overlays plots from
both the Geometry and Template windows and there are suggested plot settings. In the Geometry
window, isolate the cells of the cylinder dome and turn off the “Mesh” option while keeping
the “Fill” option on in the Plot Tool panel. Then activate the Template window and turn off the
“Fill” option while keeping the “Mesh” option on in the Plot Tool panel. Click the “Dplot” but-
ton in the Plot Tool panel and the currently active cell set of the Geometry window is plotted
first and then the Template window is plotted over it.
Figure 4-10: Plot Tool Panel Settings for Double-Plotting

2. Left-click and
drag to feature
1. Left-click
to choose
Figure 4-11: Template-Dplot: Adjusting Right Bottom
From the difference in the shading of the colors on the cylinder dome, the feature between the
flat and angled portions of the deck can be seen as a vertical line. Click the “Adjust” button
again in the Section 1 Tool panel and left-click the red dot on the lower-right corner to change
the bottom position. Then left-click and drag the mouse until the cursor is at the previously
mentioned feature to move the vertical mesh line parallel along the bottom edge or the x-axis
in this case. The right-hand boundary of the section has now moved to match the feature and
the “Right triangle” region is now visible to the right of it.

Figure 4-12: Template-Dplot: After Right Bottom Adjustment
With this mesh line in the correct place, return the plot of the Template window back to the
previous settings by turning on the “Fill” option and clicking “Cplot” in the Plot Tool panel.
The next major areas of modification are the 3 triangular regions on the corners of the section
and the “Right triangle”. There are 2 issues with these regions: one is the placement of the cor-
ner attachment points and the other is the cell density within these regions. Move the cursor
over the upper red dot of the “Right triangle” region and notice the text on the bottom of the
window.

1. Left-click
to choose
2. Left-click to
choose new
attachment point
Figure 4-13: Template: Adjusting Attachment Point of Right Triangle
Left-click to choose this point to be adjusted. All other red dots will become clear and the text
will then change to the following:
We can now select a vertex down along the perimeter of the “Outer ring radial cells” to be the
new attachment point. Left-click the vertex that is 1 position away in the clockwise direction.
Notice the improvement in the interior angles connected to the new attachment point and the
improved orthogonality in the region outside the valve at the area closest to the cylinder wall.
Similar improvements can be made by using the same steps on the other three triangular
regions. The triangular region located on the lower-right can have the left attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the lower-left can
have the right attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the top attachment point
moved counter-clockwise by one position. The triangular region located on the upper-left can
have the bottom attachment point moved clockwise by one position and the right attachment
point moved clockwise by two positions. This will result in a more consistently sized cells in
the “Outer ring radial cells” region.

Figure 4-14: Template: Section 1 After Attachment Point Adjustments
Since the spark plug is located in the triangular region on the lower-left of section 1, it would
be good to increase the cell density there. Move the cursor over the red dot located in the cen-
ter of this triangular region and notice the text on the bottom of the plotting window. Notice
the 3 red dots in the middle of each edge of the triangular region and the change in text.

2. Middle-click
to increase
1. Left-click
to choose
Figure 4-15: Template: Changing Cell Count Within a Triangular Region
The cell density and distribution of the triangular region is controlled by increasing or
decreasing the number of cell layers from the center to each of the 3 edges. Middle-click the
red dot on the interior of the section to add another cell layer between the center to that corre-
sponding edge. Then quit the adjustment of the triangular region by clicking off the mesh or
typing q on the keyboard. The increase in cell density for that triangular region can then be
seen and we are still in adjust mode.
The cell count in the “Right triangle” region should also be reduced in a similar way. Left-
click the red dot in the center of this region to choose it and then middle-click the bottom red
dot three times to increase the number of cells from that edge to the center. This will decrease
the cell count in that region. Then quit the adjustment of this region by clicking off the mesh
or typing q on the keyboard.

Figure 4-16: Template: Final Section 1
Section 1 now has acceptable cell size and cell quality. Type q with the cursor in the window
or click in an empty part of the window to quit the adjust mode. The Section 1 Tool panel is no
longer needed so click the “Close” button to close it.
Section 2 can now be built in a similar way. Starting with the valve region, the “Load” button
can be clicked to load the valve information and the number of circumferential cells should be
reduced to 40. The “Outer ring radial cells” should be decreased to 4. Usually the exhaust
valve is smaller than the intake valve and thus the exhaust valve section should have less cir-
cumferential cells but more “Outer ring radial cells” than the intake valve section to maintain
a consistent cell spacing. Similar to section 1, the “Bottom ring radial cells” should be
increased to 2. These modifications can be made with the GUI tools and the red dots for the
adjustment. Alternatively, the Valve 2 2D parameters panel can be modified directly, “Ok” can
be clicked and then the “Create” button in the Section 2 Tool panel can be clicked to see the
effect of these changes.
For section 2, a “Left triangle” will be needed and the left boundary of the section can be
moved to match the geometry feature between the flat and angled portions on the exhaust side
of the cylinder dome. The attachment points of the triangular regions can be moved similarly
to those of section 1. Then the cell density of the triangular regions and “Left triangle” can
also be modified.

With every modification that is made, the es-ice window will update the number of cells on
each side of the shared interface. Only when they are equal is the user able to continue. Click
the “Store” button in the Create Template panel to connect and smooth the mesh of the 2 sec-
tions together.
Figure 4-17: Template: Completed 2D Base Template
4.3 Creating the 3D Template

Now that the 2D template has been created, the user can adjust the remaining parameters
through the Create Template panel for the third dimension of the template. Note that in general,
a value of “0” in the parameter boxes denotes a default value calculated by es-ice for the
geometry. It is recommended to initially use as many parameter defaults as possible.
Click on the “Valves ...” button in the Create Template panel and choose “Valve 1” to bring up
the Valve 1 parameters panel. Since the port associated with this valve will be modeled entirely
within es-ice, leave the “Style” to be “Normal”. Since valve 1 has a sizeable chamfer, leave
the “Edge triangle” option to “Yes”. The “Chamber height”, which is the approximate height
of the region above the valve, should be specified in the model units of millimeters and a
value of “40” should be entered. This value can be obtained by using the vdist command to
pick vertices in the hidden plot type of the geometry or by using the sxyz command in a sec-
tion plot as was done earlier when building the stub surface in the geometry. The “Chamber

axial cells” is the number of axial cells throughout that chamber height and should be set to
“25” to obtain a reasonable but coarse cell spacing. The “Chamber radial cells” is the number
of radial cells in the chamber and this can be left at a value of “0” to accept whatever default
value es-ice calculates later to obtain well-proportioned cells in that region. By looking at the
valve lift files, it can be seen that the maximum valve lift for valve 1 is close to 9.4 millime-
ters. Enter a value of “9.4” for “Reference lift”. es-ice will try to keep the vertical cell spacing
in the valve curtain to be the “Reference lift” divided by the “Reference cells”. For this tuto-
rial example, we will accept a cell spacing of around 1 millimeter so edit the “Reference cells”
parameter to be a value of “9”. At the bottom of the panel, change the “Exclude on close”
parameter to “Yes”. This will exclude the port above valve 1 from the solution when the valve
closes for the last time during the analysis range. This provides increased stability and a small
speed-up. Leave the other parameters at their default values and click the “Ok” button
r1
Chamber
height Stub down
height r2
r2/r1 = Stub trim fraction
Figure 4-18: Geometry: Template Parameters for Stub
Next Click on the “Valves ...” button in the Create Template panel and choose “Valve 2” to
bring up the Valve 2 parameters panel. Since the port associated with this valve will be modeled
externally from es-ice and a stub surface was created above this valve, change the “Style” to
be “Stub”. Similar to valve 1, leave the “Edge triangle” option to “Yes”. The “Chamber
height” parameter is now the height of the area above the valve up to the top of the stub. Set
this value to “25”. Enter a value of “16” for the “Chamber axial cells” parameter. The “Cham-

ber radial cells” should be specified as “8” to maintain a well-proportioned spacing. The “Stub
down height” will be the approximate height of the step of the stub and a value of “20” can be
entered. The “Stub trim fraction” should be the ratio of the radial distance of the step of the
stub to the radial distance of the entire stub. Enter a value of “0.65” for the “Stub trim frac-
tion” parameter. Upon close inspection of the geometry, valve 2 is noticed to be recessed. This
is shown in a step-like feature around the outside of the valve seat area. To improve the qual-
ity of the eventual mapping process, a similar step-like feature can be applied to the template.
With the size of this step in the geometry, we can improve the 3D template by adding 1 radial
cell layer around the valve seat cells that is 1 cell layer in height. This is done by entering a
value of “1” for “Layers above dome” and “Rings above dome”. The other values are either
similar to the other valve or can be left to their default values. When finished entering the
parameters, click the “Ok” button to apply the values and close the panel.
Figure 4-19: Modified 3D Parameters for Valves 1 and 2

Next click on the “Arms ...” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Arm 1 parame-
ters panel. Enter “0.75” for the “Height fraction” and “58” for the “Length”. The “Width lay-
ers” and “Length layers” should be left at “0” so that es-ice can calculate default values for
these parameters. The intake arm should extend out in the global +x-direction from the intake
valve so enter values of “1”, “0” and “0” for the “Axis X”, “Axis Y” and “Axis Z” parameters,
respectively. The intake arm is a siamese type arm so choose “Siamese” for the “Type”
parameter. By measurement of the geometry, we can enter values of “0.55”, “0.8” and “1” for
“Siamese start fraction”, “Siamese stop fraction” and “Siamese layers”, respectively. Click
the “Ok” button when finished. Since the exhaust arm will not be modeled in es-ice, the
parameters for arm 2 will not be used.
Click on the “Cylinder” button in the Create Template panel to bring up the Cylinder parameters
panel. Since the stroke for our tutorial example is 87 millimeters, fill in “87” for the “Piston
stroke length”. The “Piston Z at TDC” parameter is only used when a flat piston is modeled.
Although this is not the case for our tutorial example, usually it is a good idea to check the
combustion dome mapping results before proceeding to model the piston. One method to do
this is to assume a flat piston for the model after the combustion dome mapping is complete.
Enter a value of “-1.5” for “Piston Z at TDC” to assume a flat piston with a 1.5 millimeter
TDC clearance if the real piston geometry is ignored. Note that this parameter will be ignored
once the real piston geometry is modeled. All other parameters can be left at their default val-
ues. Click the “Ok” button when finished.
Figure 4-20: Modified Parameters for Arm 1 and the Cylinder

After all the parameters have been set, click the “Make Template” button in the Create Tem-
plate panel to make the template and write its information to a file called save_ice by
default. It is a required file for the “Star Setup” procedure to come later. We have already cre-
ated some splines for the stub and es-ice will create a few more splines by default. Since the
existing splines start at ID 51, we can leave the reading option to the default of “Replace
curves”. Click the “Read Template” button to read the 3D template into the current working
session and plot it onto the screen. Notice that new local coordinate systems are created which
are re-oriented such that it is on the bottom of the closed valve and the xy-rotation is 0 (coor-
dinate system ID numbers 13 and 14). A number of default edges and splines have also been
automatically created.
Figure 4-21: Template: Default 3D Template
Next we need to remove a region of the template to conform more closely to the spark plug
geometry. Because of the relative coarse cell size in the template and the relative small size of
the spark plug geometry, a few cells from the template in that area will be deleted.
After inspecting the spark plug geometry and measuring some vertical distances along the
global z-axis, some cells can be deleted and taken out of the currently active cell set. Because
of the simple spark plug geometry, this can be done with cursor picks using the pull-down
menus and choosing “Sets” > “Cset” > “Delete” > “Cursor”.

Figure 4-22: Template: Template After Spark Plug Cells are Deleted
Taking cells out of the currently active cell set is not enough to tell es-ice that we wish to
remove these cells from the CFD calculations. Cells in Template Cset 1 is considered to be the
cells used during the CFD calculations so it must be modified as well. Use the pull-down
menus and choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “List”. A listing of the Template Csets are shown where
Cset 0 is the currently active cell set.
The “L” on the left-hand side indicates a locked cell set which prevents accidental modifica-
tions. When the 3D template was first read in and plotted to the screen, Template Cset 1 was
made the currently active cell set. Now that we have deleted several cells from the currently
active cell set, there are less cells in Template Cset 0 as there are in Template Cset 1. We now
need to update Template Cset 1 with the cells that we have in the currently active cell set.
Using the pull-down menus, choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Unlock” > “1 Active cells”. Then use
the pull-down menus again and choose “Sets” > “Cset” > “Save” > “1 Active cells”. Then it is

recommended to lock this important cell set again using the pull-down menus and choosing
“Sets” > “Cset” > “Lock” > “1 Active cells”. es-ice will now exclude the cells of the spark
plug cut-out and after the mapping, the mesh will conform to the geometry with less distortion
than it would have if we had not removed those cells from the template.
has been saved to the save_es-ice.2-template file of the tutorial example files.
4.4 General Notes About Edges and Splines

The vertices of the template must be moved so that the template becomes shaped like the
geometry. This movement is accomplished in a sequence of steps using es-ice. These steps
involve feature lines, surfaces and volumes.
The first step involves mapping feature lines in the template to corresponding lines in the
geometry. The feature lines of the template are called edges. Edges are ordered sets of vertices
on the template. The feature lines of the geometry are called splines. Splines are ordered sets
of knots, which in general are smoothly connected. The knots that define a spline may be
located on a vertex of the geometry, on the surface or on another spline. Thus, splines are
more complicated than edges. In the Select panel, an Edge/Spline Tool is available to work with
these two types of entities. Like cells and vertices, splines and edges have ID numbers and
they can be gathered into sets and displayed or hidden with analogous commands and pull-
down menu operations.
For every edge in the template, there must be a corresponding spline in the geometry. The
edges will be mapped to that spline so that the first and last points coincide and so that the
other vertices of the edges lie on the spline. The spacing of the vertices can be selected in the
Edge/Spline Tool so that the vertices are either spaced at equal intervals (linear spacing), pro-
portional to their original spacing in the template (original spacing) or fixed (fixed spacing).
Notice that edges and splines can be created in any order, but eventually the corresponding
splines and edges must have the same ID number. Exactly how many spline/edge pairs to cre-
ate and where to create them is dependent on the complexity of the geometry and to some
extent at the discretion of the user. Note that some splines and edges are generated automati-
cally by es-ice when the 3D template is created.
Here are some guidelines about splines and edges used for mapping:
1. Splines must not intersect. They may be joined end-to-end, but they cannot cross
themselves or another spline. Similarly, edges must not intersect.
2. Spline starting and ending points are control points. By breaking one spline into sev-
eral splines, the user can obtain more control points. The vertices at the ends of the corre-
sponding edges will be mapped to those control points. As indicated previously, intermediate
vertices will be spaced either linearly with constant spacing, proportional to their original tem-
plate spacing or with fixed spacing, depending on the user’s choice for the spacing of the
edge.

3. Because splines are defined by their knots and knots exist independent of geometry,
there is a variety of pick modes for splines in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. Edges, by contrast,
are always placed on vertices of the template and therefore have only one pick mode.
4. To insure that splines connect to each other, the pick mode for the first knot of a new
spline should be “Knot” so that the spline truly begins at the last knot of the previous spline.
This will avoid connectivity problems later when checks are performed. Toggling with the
right-mouse button, the user can change the pick mode for subsequent knots.
4.5 Creating Edges and Splines Near the Valve Seat

Let us first focus on the region around the valve seat for valve 1. It is important that the cells
in this region be carefully controlled to avoid excessive skew during mesh motion. Typically
for each valve, four concentric edges are mapped to four concentric splines in this region. In
the Geometry window, we can examine a cross-section of the valve and valve seat region with
splines plotted by using the pull-down menus and choosing “Sets” > “Sset” > “All” to put all
our splines into the current spline set. Then view a section plot through valve 1 by clicking the
“Section” button in the Plot Tool window and setting up the section plane with the following
commands:
spoint,0,0,0,11
snorm,0,1,0
View the section in the direction of the section normal by choosing “View Snormal” or “View
0 1 0” from the “Views” options in the Plot Tool window. Zoom in to the region closer to the
other valve.
We can see that we need to move two of the automatically-generated splines, splines 3 and 5.
This is because these splines are needed on the outside surface of the geometry to control the
mesh, not on the valve. Therefore, we need to move these splines to the outside surface. Typi-
cally, for steeply angled valves, we can translate the spline at “p4” (spline 3) in the global z-
direction and the spline at “p3” (spline 5) in the local z-direction. We most easily accomplish
this by creating new splines in the desired locations using the old splines as visual guides.

Figure 4-23: Geometry: Moving Automatically-Generated Valve Splines to the Surface
Click the “Hidden” button in the Plot Tool to go back to the hidden plot type. We want to create
another spline on the surface above the outer, automatically-generated valve spline in the local
z-direction. View the geometry looking down from the +z-axis of the local valve coordinate
system (ID number 11) with the following command:
view,0,0,1,11
We will use the “Surface” option for the “Pick Knot”
mode but before we do, since the valve is very close to the
surface in that area, the valve should be deleted from the
currently active cell set so that the incorrect surface is not
used due to tolerance issues. Then zoom into the area
closer to the other valve. Choose the “Surface” option for
the “Pick Knot” mode in the Edge/Spline Tool panel and
then click the “Point Circle” button. Using the existing
spline as a visual guide, try to left-click as close to the
already existing knot as possible. Then type q to quit the
pick mode and accept the created circular spline.

Left-click here
Figure 4-24: Geometry: Creating Spline on Surface in Local Z-Direction
The same thing should be done with the other automatically-generated valve spline. View the
geometry looking down from the +z-axis of the global coordinate system by choosing “View
0 0 1” from the “Views” options in the Plot Tool panel. Zoom into the same area as before, use
the “Surface” option for the “Pick Knot” mode, click the “Point Circle” button, left-click as
close to the already existing knot of the appropriate spline as possible and type q to quit and
accept the newly created circular spline.
If we return to our former section view, put all the cells into the currently active cell set and
plot it, we can visually check our new splines to see if they were created correctly.

Once we verify that everything is correct, the automatically-generated splines are no longer
needed. Also, since the edge numbers correspond to these automatically-generated splines on
the valve, we would like to renumber the newly created splines on the surface to be the same
as the numbers of their corresponding automatically-generated splines. Type the following
command:
spline,55,renumber,5
The output in the es-ice window between the input and output text boxes will appear as the fol-
lowing:
We may click on the “Yes” text with the mouse or type y. This will not only renumber spline
55 to be spline 5, but also overwrite and destroy the previously numbered spline 5 in the pro-
cess. The same thing may be done for the other spline pair.

The next step is to add two more concentric splines to precisely designate the valve seat
region. These circular splines should be located at the ends of the shells that define the surface
of revolution of the valve seat, in other words the borders of the contact area.
2 additional concentric splines
Figure 4-25: Geometry: Additional Splines Needed on Each End of Valve Seat
We return to a zoomed hidden view of the previous valve seat area that is closer to the other
valve without the shells for valve 1. A mesh line that is parallel to the global x-axis is visible
in the shells that define the valve curtain region. Note that most of the other circular splines
around both valve seat regions have their starting/ending knots along this circumferential ref-
erence position. When creating new circular splines, it is strongly recommended to keep this
circumferential reference position whenever possible to minimize the possibility of skewing
the mesh during the mapping process. Keeping this in mind, we can see two vertices that
intersect the reference mesh line parallel to the x-axis and the border of the valve seat shells.

Figure 4-26: Geometry: Two Vertices to be Used to Create Additional Valve Splines
Click the “Vertex” button for the “Pick Knot” option in the
Edge/Spline Tool panel and then click the “Point Circle”
button to create a circular spline by picking a vertex as the
starting/ending knot. Click on one of the two vertices pre-
viously mentioned and type q to accept the new spline.
Then click the “Point Circle” button again, choose the
other vertex and type q again to create the other circular
spline. A section view through valve 1 will now show the
four splines to be used in defining the valve seat region.

Figure 4-27: Geometry: Four Concentric Circular Splines for Valve Seat
Now visualize the four radial cells that will span across this region. In the template there are
five edges covering each radial mesh line for these four radial cells. Since we only need the
four splines for this region, one of the edges will need to be cleared and destroyed. This means
that out of the three radial regions defined between the splines, one of them will include two
radial cell layers and the others will include one radial cell layer. We look at the radial dis-
tances shown between the four splines and see that it is best to put two radial cell layers
between splines 3 and 55 which have the largest space. Then by looking at the five edges for
the valve seat region that were automatically-generated, we can determine that edge 7 can be
cleared and destroyed. To do this, we click the “Clear edge” button and pick a knot on edge 7.
Then we can type q to quit the pick mode.

2 radial cell layers

1 radial cell layer
edge to clear
Figure 4-28: Geometry (left) and Template (right): Radial Cell Distribution of Valve Seat
Comparison now of the corresponding spline and edge numbers in this region will reveal that
the two latter splines created need to have their ID numbers changed to correctly correspond
with their analogous edges. The spline,#,renum,# command may be used again, but another
method is to use the “Associate” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. This is a renumbering
feature that involves clicking the appropriate splines and edges with the mouse.
Click the “Associate” button. The Template window will become active and the text on the
bottom of the window indicates that we should click on an edge to be associated. Left-click on
a knot of edge 8. es-ice will then make the Geometry window active and the text on the bottom
will indicate that we should click on a spline to be associated with the edge that we just
picked. Left-click on the knot spline 55. This will renumber spline 55 to spline 8 so that the ID
numbers match between the picked edge and spline. The active window will then be switched
to the Template again and the process is repeated until a q is typed to quit. If the new spline ID
number during the association is the same as the ID number of another spline, the other
spline’s ID number will be changed to the next available spline ID number. Note that the
dynamic mode is also available and may be useful.
The process outlined in this section should be repeated for valve 2. Notice, however, that this
valve is recessed and contains a sharp, step-like feature. In addition to the process outlined in
this section, two additional splines should be created for the feature. Two edges, however,
have been automatically generated for that feature. The two analogous splines need to be cre-
ated, which will be circular and concentric to the other valve splines for valve 2. Recall that
the “Point Circle” option can be used, the circumferential reference position of the starting/
ending point should be taken into account and the ID numbers as well as the directions of the
analogous splines and edges should match.

Figure 4-29: Geometry: 10 Circular Splines Generated for Both Valve Seat Regions
4.6 Creating the Remaining Edges and Splines

Next, we need to add more edges and splines to control the surfaces of the intake port and cyl-
inder head. We will first work with the template, where it is more obvious which features are
good candidates for control.
Starting with valve 2, the step-like stub can be seen to have several automatically-generated
edges. Upon inspection, they are on mesh lines that divide horizontal and vertical template
faces. There are large angles between the cell faces on either side of the vertices belonging to
those edges, making those edges important. The edges belonging to the stub region of valve 2
seem to be complete.
The intake port region of the template contains a few automatically-generated edges around
the port face and the symmetry area across the siamese portion of the port. These edges repre-
sent features around special boundary regions so they should be kept. We would like, how-
ever, to add a circular edge that wraps around the top of the valve chamber. This edge will
eventually be used to separate the horizontal surface on the top of the valve chamber from the
vertical surface on the side of the valve chamber. Click the “Create” button from the “Edge”
section of the Edge/Spline Tool panel to create this extra edge.

Edges, unlike splines, are defined strictly in terms of vertices that belong to existing cells.
Therefore, there is no variety of pick modes that we have for splines. By default, however,
edges are created in chain mode, meaning that when two vertices are selected that are not
neighbors, the intervening vertices will be automatically included in the edges. As a result,
every vertex along the arc does not need to be picked to define the edges.
Figure 4-30: Template: Arc-like Edge on Top Corner of Intake Valve Chamber
Several edges need to be created to border the region where we’ve removed cells for the spark
plug cutout. We zoom in on this region of interest and see that there is an edge that conforms
to the way the template was before the cell removal. This edge can easily be fixed by using the
“Split” function. Click the “Split” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel. Left-click the two edge
knots at the ends of the spark plug cut-outs to split the edge into three edges. The middle one
does not follow a mesh line and so it should be cleared and destroyed with the “Clear edge”
button. Several other edges need to be defined along mesh lines that represent sharp features
and large angles between adjacent template cell faces. While creating these edges, recall that
edges cannot intersect or cross each other and that they must be joined end-to-end. It is usually
helpful to keep similarly aligned edges in a consistent direction.

Figure 4-31: Template: Edges at Spark Plug Cut-Out
On both ends of the cylinder head, there are triangular regions that are flat in the geometry.
We captured the intersection between that flat surface and the angled region of the cylinder
dome with a mesh line in the template through the use of “Left/Right Triangles” during the 2D
base template generation. That mesh line is a feature that should have an edge on it. Remem-
ber again that edges cannot intersect or cross each other and that they must be joined end-to-
end. Where those edges meet the automatically-generated edges at the cylinder wall and sym-
metry plane perimeters of the cylinder head, the “Split” function should be used so that the
edges are joined end-to-end. Conversely, a few of the automatically-generated edges at the
cylinder radius can be joined with the “Join” function into one edge. As a default, es-ice splits
edges at the cylinder radius at points where they come the closest to each of the valves. These
automatically-generated control points are usually useful, but the geometry of our tutorial
example is simple enough that they are not needed.

Figure 4-32: Template: Edges on Cylinder Head at Intake Side
After all the edges have been created, we can proceed to creating the additional splines that
are needed. The location, starting/ending knots, ID numbering and direction of the splines
should be consistent with that of its analogous edges. To aid with the ID numbering, the user
can manually renumber edges and splines with the edge/spline,#,renumber,# command, use
the “Associate” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel or use the “Pick ID” function located on
the left-side of the Edge/Spline Tool. Activating this “Pick ID” button and clicking the “Create”
button to create splines will allow the user to first pick an existing edge and then the spline
created will have the same ID number as that previously picked edge. Note that the reverse is
true if the “Create” button for creation of edges is clicked.

Figure 4-33: Template: All the Edges
One important edge/spline pair that should be explained in further detail is the pair that
extends for most of the cylinder radius. In the template, this edge helps to divide the horizon-
tal cell faces of the top of the cylinder head from the vertical cell faces of the cylinder wall.
With this in mind, the analogous spline needs to be created in the geometry. The strategy is to
create a spline that also will help divide approximately horizontal geometry surfaces from
approximately vertical geometry surfaces. Across a filleted curve, an appropriate transition
line should be used such that there is a compromise and balance between horizontal and verti-
cal template faces that will eventually map to various sections of the curved surface.
es-ice assumes that template surface vertices of the cylinder wall will be at the cylinder radius.
With the spline that was previously created, it is necessary for some template vertices of the
cylinder wall to be projected to geometry shells that are less than the cylinder radius. Geome-
try Cset 1 is labelled “Cylinder shells” and is reserved for shells that are not at the cylinder
radius and to which template vertices of the cylinder wall will be mapped. These shells pro-
vide a surface to which the corresponding template surface of the cylinder wall, composed of
vertical faces, can be projected. Isolate the geometry shells for the cylinder dome and notice
that the lower boundary has vertices on the cylinder radius and at the z=0 height. Using a
combination of zone deletes and cursor deletes, remove cells above the previously created
spline. We can be somewhat approximate in this procedure since we need to include all neces-

sary shells below the spline but can tolerate some extra shells above them. Once this is done,
the currently active cell set needs to be saved to Geometry Cset 1.
Figure 4-34: Geometry: Shells Placed into Geometry Cset 1
Once all the appropriate splines are created, click the “Check” button in the Edge/Spline Tool to
see if there are any connectivity and orientation problems with the edges and splines.
4.7 Creating Patches

We have not yet performed any mapping, but we have laid the groundwork for mapping all
the vertices contained in the edges that we have defined. The edges that we have created
bound surfaces in the template that should be mapped to corresponding shell surfaces. Just as
we assigned the vertices along feature lines to edges so that they could be mapped to splines,
we must also assign the vertices on the surfaces of the template between the edges to patches
so that they can be mapped to the surface shells of the geometry.
Patches are only created for the port, stub and cylinder dome surfaces. This is done almost
with one mouse click, using the edges that have already been created. The first step is to
gather only the two edges that are at the top of the valve stems being modeled in the template.
As will be seen later, having these two edges in the currently active edge set will prevent the
automatic patch generation process from creating unwanted patches along the valve.

Click the “Patch or Vshell” button in the Select panel to open the
Patch/Vshell Tool panel. The “Patch Type” option should be set to
“Shell” since we intend for all our patches to be projected to geom-
etry shells. Click the “Auto Bound” button and click on any cell
face except those that represent the valve stem. The picked cell
face acts as a seed face and patches are created while growing out-
ward until it hits an edge in the currently active edge set. Thus, the
entire region is patched. The ID number and size of the patches that
are formed depend on the space between the created edges, not just
those in the currently active edge set. All the patches created are
automatically put into the currently active patch set. Turning on the “Patch” button and in the
Plot Tool and replotting displays the patches in the currently active patch set and produces a
legend for them. Notice that there is one patch on the symmetry plane and cylinder wall. This
should be cleared and destroyed since the symmetry plane and cylinder wall are special
regions that es-ice understands and will deal with automatically in its own way. Click the
“Clear” button in the Patch/Vshell Tool, left-click any face in the template representing the sym-
metry plane or cylinder wall and type q or click on a blank part of the Template window to
quit.
Figure 4-35: Template: Two Necessary Edges and Final Patches

4.8 The Mapping Process

The mapping process involves vertices included in the edges and patches. These vertices are
surface vertices of the template. The other surface vertices on the symmetry plane and cylin-
der wall as well as most interior vertices of the template will not be moved until a later time. It
is therefore possible that some of the vertices that are mapped will push into those that are not
mapped and result in confusing plots in which the mapped surfaces cannot be clearly seen. es-
ice has a facility for isolating cell faces associated with the surface mapping so that this confu-
sion is eliminated. Type the following command to do this:
cmark
You will be reminded that your currently active cell set will be changed so answer “yes” and
this will invoke a series of commands that will build a new, currently active cell set and plot
only the faces of cells that belong to patches in the currently active patch set. To improve visu-
alization, the “Edge” and “Patch” buttons should be turned off in the Plot Tool panel. The
resulting plot shows only those faces of the template that are to be mapped.
Figure 4-36: Template: Result of the cmark Command
The currently active cell set of the geometry should also be modified to have only the shells
associated with the “cmark” result from the template to serve as a target for the mapping. This
will be the geometry shells for only the cylinder head, intake port and exhaust stub.

Figure 4-37: Geometry: Geometry Shells that are the Target for Mapping
Click the “Mapping” button in the Select panel to open the

Map Tool panel. This panel is divided into three main sections.
We will proceed through the buttons and steps of each section
from the top to the bottom.
We will first work with the edges. At the top of the panel in
the “Edge” section, set the pop-up menu to “All”. Then click
the “Map edges” button. This will map all the created edges
to their appropriate splines. Replot the window to see the
effect of this stage of mapping.

Figure 4-38: Template: Result of Mapping All Edges
We will next work with the surface. In the “Surface” section, set the top pop-up menu again to
“All”. Keep the defaults of the next two pop-up menus as “Map” and “Full elliptic”. Change
the last pop-up menu to “Target Cset”. Click the “Map patches” button to map all the patches.

Figure 4-39: Template: Result of Mapping All Patches
Then click the “Project patches” button to project the patches to the shells in the current
geometry cell set and perform surface smoothing on the vertices of the patches using the “Full
elliptic” smoothing method. By isolating the geometry shells that are the target of our map-
ping and projection, es-ice will not be confused by extraneous geometry surfaces and toler-
ance issues. The window will automatically be replotted after each patch that is projected and
smoothed. Note that some patches were neither mapped nor projected as indicated in the out-
put of the es-ice window. This is because those patches are small and do not contain vertices
not already defined through edges. In other words, all the vertices of those patches that did not
get mapped nor projected are already included by edges that were already mapped.
At this point, the mapped template should be visually checked. The user should zoom in to
several areas from a variety of perspectives to insure that no faces are too badly distorted or
skewed. Areas of particular concern are the regions of closest approach between the valve seat
and the cylinder circumference. Also any corners that might exist on the valve chambers and
arms should be carefully inspected. The “Project patches” process is an iterative process so
repeated projections can result in successive improvements of the surface mesh. Also, a dif-
ferent surface smoothing method could be used with the “Project patches” process. The most
common alternative to the default “Full elliptic” method is the “Elliptic” method. For more
involved modifications, splines can be redefined, edges remapped and patches redefined and

re-projected on an individual basis. The spacing of edges and patches can also be changed
individually. The default spacing for both edges and patches is “Original”, but sometimes the
“Linear” option can be used to improve the surface mapping result.
Figure 4-40: Template: Final Mapped and Projected Result
The valve surface is next and to see the effect of this mapping, look at a section plot through
the valves. The effects of the “cmark” should now be turned off by turning off the “Marked”
button in the Plot Tool panel. We now want to look at our cell set to be used for our CFD calcu-
lation so use the pull-down menu and click “Sets” > “Cset” > “Recall” > “1 Active cells”
(same as the cset,recall,1 command). The “Fill” button in the Plot Tool panel should be turned
off for improved visualization. Then click the “Map valves” button to map the top of the valve
surface. Replot the window and zoom in to see the effect of this mapping.

Figure 4-41: Template: Result after “Map Valves”
We will finally work with the part of the interior. We only wish to map the interior vertices of
the static part of the mesh since the moving vertices will be handled later during the analysis
run. The current cell set of the template needs to be changed to have only the non-moving sec-
tion composed of the cells above the valves. This is automatically done by clicking the
“Gather cells” button. Plot the result and notice that only the intake port and exhaust stub are
in the currently active cell set of the template.

Figure 4-42: Template: Result after “Gather Cells”
Keep the defaults of all the pop-up menus in this section as “Elliptic”, “Original spacing” and
“Negative volume”. Click the “Map interior” button to map the interior vertices of the cur-
rently active cell set on the screen. Then click the “Smooth interior” button to perform volume
smoothing on those vertices using the elliptic method and trying to maintain the original spac-
ing of the vertices. As with the “Project patches” process, the “Smooth interior” process is an
iterative process so repeated smoothings can result in successive improvements. Click the
“Smooth interior” button again to perform another iteration of the volume smoothing. Replot
the window to see the effect of this mapping.

Figure 4-43: Template: Result after “Map Interior” and “Smooth Interior”
Finally, click the “Check cells” button to check the currently active cell set for negative vol-
umes. Since the currently active cell set contains cells that are static and will not move, if
there are no negative volumes now for these cells then we can be confident that there will not
be negative volumes in this region during the analysis.
Recall that only the surface vertices contained in patches and internal vertices of the static
region of the mesh have been moved. Since there are vertices that have not been moved yet,
the mesh may look distorted in some places but it can be ignored at this point.

Figure 4-44: Template: 3D Template after Mapping
4.9 Importing and Cpmatching the Externally-Created Mesh

Recall that the stub surface in the template was mapped and projected. We are now ready to
import the externally-created mesh for the exhaust port which is assumed to have already been
created. Click the “Read Data” button in the Select panel to open the Read Tool panel. As was
done earlier to read in the geometry shells, type in or search for the name of the database file
called exhaust.dbs that was included with the tutorial example files and click the
“DBase” button to open it. Make sure that the Template window is active and import the mesh
by typing the command:
dbase,add,1
Plot the mesh and verify that it is the correct database. Notice also that the added cells of the
port were automatically included into Template Cset 1 so that they will be included in the
CFD calculations. Then close the currently open database file by typing the command:
dbase,close

Figure 4-45: Template: Result after Exhaust Port is Added
During the mapping process, the user will have created patches on the stub surfaces so that the
stubs in the template could be mapped to the shells in the geometry. The three patches for the
exhaust stub should be gathered into the currently active patch set using cursor picks. Then
save these three patches into one of the numbered patch sets such as Pset 1. The user should
now create a corresponding patch on the surfaces of the arms where the interface lies with the
stub surfaces. First, create two edges to bound the region and then create a patch using the
Patch/VShell Tool panel. Isolate only this one patch into the currently active patch set and save
it into another of the numbered patch sets such as Pset 2. Since the two recently created edges
are not needed anymore, they should be cleared and destroyed.

Figure 4-46: Template: Patches on Stub (left) and Port (right) for Cpmatching
Couples can now be generated to connect the two regions across the stub interface. To visual-
ize the cpmatching process, look at an isometric view of the mesh with the “Fill” button
turned off in the Plot Tool panel. Before the cpmatching process occurs, we can see the exhaust
stub template surface through the mesh.
Generate the cpmatches using the command:
cpmatch,pset,1,2
This will generate the cpmatches using the faces in the patches of Pset 1 as master faces and
the faces in the patch of Pset 2 as slave faces. In general, we either choose the stub faces to be
the master faces of the couples or the faces of the coarser mesh to be the master. Plotting the
window will visually reveal that the cpmatching process is complete. Since the recently cre-
ated patch on the port is not needed anymore, it should be destroyed and cleared from the
model.
Figure 4-47: Template: “Fill” Off Plot Before (left) and After (right) Cpmatching
An extrusion layer at the exhaust port face should also be created since this was not created
when meshing the exhaust port in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation. This will allow
boundaries to be defined there since creating an extrusion layer on a trimmed mesh will elim-

inate the possibility of faces 7 or 8 of a trimmed cell existing on the surface (recall that bound-
aries cannot be defined on faces 7 or 8 of a trimmed cell). This can be done by first creating an
edge around the exhaust port face and then a patch on the exhaust port face. Then type the fol-
lowing command:
pextrude,cursor,1,.5
Left-click the created patch to create 1 layer of 0.5mm thick cells outwardly normal to the
picked patch. Recall that a left-click on an empty part of the plotting window or a keyboard
input of q will quit the pick mode. Note that these newly created cells are automatically added
to Template Cset 1 so that they are included in our CFD calculations. Clear and destroy the
edge and patch afterwards since they are no longer needed.
Figure 4-48: Template: Exhaust Port Before (left) and After (right) Creating Extrusion Layer
sion into a new save_es-ice filename. The work to this point has been saved to the
save_es-ice.3-flat file of the tutorial example files. Note that this model can be used
to assume a flat piston geometry by skipping the rest of this chapter and proceeding to the
next.
4.10 Meshing the Piston with the Shape Piston Method

The shape piston method is a very flexible method that can model very complex piston geom-
etries. All of the meshing for the piston is handled directly in es-ice and it is currently the only
piston method that allows penetration of the cylinder head features into the piston, such as the
deep spark plug in our tutorial example.
Most of the techniques used for the shape piston method are the same as the techniques used
previously to map the cylinder head, intake port and exhaust stub. Cells may be removed to
help the template conform better to the geometry, edges and splines are created for control,
patches are created and then a similar mapping and projecting process is used. Just like the
previous mapping process, only the surface of the piston will be mapped and the interior verti-
ces of the piston will automatically be moved and handled by es-ice during the analysis.

Before we can begin creating edges, splines and patches, we need to create shells that approx-
imately represent the piston surface. These shells are called “dummy target shells” and they
will serve as a target for layers of vertices. These layers will consist of a user-specified key
grid plane from the original template. Since this grid plane represents the surface of a continu-
ous layer of cells, it must be relatively smooth. Therefore, the dummy target shells must be
relatively smooth. As a result, piston features such as bowls and crowns should not be
included when creating the dummy target shells.
We will first create splines and then create the dummy target shells between those splines. Iso-
late the piston shells in the currently active cell set and make sure that it is in the correct TDC
position. Using “Vertex” for the “Pick mode”, create a spline starting from one corner of the
intersection between the cylinder wall and symmetry plane to another. Choose as few vertices
as possible, clicking only on vertices where there is a change in angle between the flat sur-
faces and stay along the symmetry plane line of y=0 whenever possible. The curved shape of
the spline should also be ignored since flat shells will be created between the knots later.
6 total knots
Figure 4-49: Geometry: Piston and Created Spline
Next create two other splines on both sides in the y-directions so that they extend beyond the
piston shells. To do this, we will create new splines by a translation of their knots in the global
cartesian y-direction with the following commands (assuming the created spline ID is 47):

spline,48,from,47,0,-20,0,1
spline,49,from,47,0,50,0,1
These new splines should extend beyond the piston geometry shells, especially from a view
from the global +z-axis (view,0,0,1).
Figure 4-50: Geometry: Two Additional Projected Splines Created
Now the dummy target shells can be created between the two outer splines by typing the fol-
lowing command:
sshell,cursor
The cursor is now in pick mode and the two outer splines (splines 48 and 49) should be left-
clicked with the mouse. Flat shells will then be created between the picked splines with the
next available cell type which will be our dummy target shells. The three created splines can
then be cleared since they are no longer needed.
Isolate the newly created dummy target shells in the currently active cell set and save them to
Geometry Cset 2 by unlocking, saving and locking. For the shape piston method, es-ice will
assume that the shells in Geometry Cset 2 are to be used as the dummy target shells.

Figure 4-51: Geometry: Dummy Target Shells Saved to Geometry Cset 2
Isolate the piston shells again in the currently active cell set. The shape piston method is the
only piston method that requires the piston shells to be at its BDC position since the mapping
process will eventually be done in the BDC position. With only the piston shells in the cur-
rently active cell set, we will gather all the vertices of the piston shells and move them down
by the piston stroke length in the global cartesian system. Use the pull-down menus and
choose “Sets” > “Vset” > “Newset” > “Cset, 0” (same as the vset,newset,cset command).
Then type the following commands:
csys,1
vmod,vset,0,0,-87,relative

Now click the “Piston” button in the Select panel to open the
Piston panel. From the pop-up menu at the top of the panel,
select the “Shape piston” option. Since it is critical to mini-
mize skew at TDC when the piston is closest to the cylinder
head, the default value for “Crank angle (deg)” can be left at
“360”. Click the “Map piston XYZ” button. This invokes es-
ice to calculate and store the position of the bottom layer of
template vertices at a crank angle of 360 degrees and assum-
ing the piston was shaped like the dummy target shells in
Geometry Cset 2. After this finishes, this vertex spacing
information can be applied to a number of cell layers starting
from the bottom template cell layer and the distance between
these layers can also be specified. Judging by our 1 millime-
ter approximate valve curtain height and the geometric
height of the piston bowl, we will use ten cell layers to model
the piston. Another cell layer must be added to account for
the “key grid plane” so enter a value of “11” for the “Layers
to read” parameter, activating the “Layer DZ” button and
entering a value of “1”. Click the “Read piston XYZ” button.
The bottom eleven layers of the template will now be spaced
1 millimeter apart in the global z-direction, have the vertex
spacing from the “Map piston XYZ” function and have the
shape of the dummy target shells. This results in a piston
mesh that will match most closely to the combustion dome
mesh when the piston is close to the dome, thus minimizing
mesh distortion.

Key Grid
Plane
Piston Mesh
Figure 4-52: Template: Result after “Map Piston XYZ” Procedure
Similar to what was previously done with the spark plug, the appropriate template cells need
to be deleted so that the piston bowl and crescent conform to the geometry better. The double-
plotting feature and other similar techniques should be used as before. An additional tech-
nique that will be explained here is the use of the “Plaster” button in the Edge/Spline Tool panel
to create non-hexahedral cells in order to improve mapping to curved geometry surfaces.
After gathering the cells to be mapped to the piston bowl,
we can improve the stair-stepped nature of the mesh result-
ing from this cell deletion by filling in columns of prism
cells. This is accomplished by bounding each set of stair-
steps by an edge that runs diagonally across some cell
faces. Turning on the “Diagonal” button in the Edge/Spline
Tool allows edges to run diagonally across a cell face. This
rectangular cell face will eventually be cut into two trian-
gular faces, resulting in a trim cell type 1 which avoids the
use of partial boundary cpmatches. Note that a single edge
can be used for multiple, adjacent stair-steps. The “Plas-
ter” button can then be clicked and then left-clicking on
the knot of an edge will create the necessary cells, in this

case prisms. As with most other cursor-pick functions, a q can be typed or an empty part of the
screen can be clicked to quit the function. After the plastered cells are created, the edges are
no longer useful so they should be cleared with the “Clear edge” button.
Figure 4-53: Template: Piston Bowl Cells Before (left) and After (right) Plastering Columns
We also wish to put a crown of plastered cells around the piston bowl so that we do not have
to map adjoining side and bottom faces to the smoothly-contoured piston bowl, which could
result in cells with excessively large interior angles. This is accomplished by first deleting
some cells to obtain a stair-step feature and then plastering it. The plastering function will
automatically create prisms, pyramids, tetrahedrals and trimmed cells to correctly fill the
stair-step.
Figure 4-54: Template: Piston Bowl Cells Before (left) and After (right) Plastering Crown
Similar things can be done for the crescent cells on the other end of the piston. Edges, splines
and patches can then be created and the “Edge” and “Surface” mapping procedures that were
previously done can be repeated here to map the piston surface.

Figure 4-55: Template: Result Before (left) and After (right) Plastering Crescent Cells
Figure 4-56: Template (left) and Geometry (right): Edges/Patches and Splines for Shape Piston

Figure 4-57: Template: “Cmark” Plot of Piston After Mapping
Since the spark plug is deep enough to penetrate the piston bowl at TDC, the discontinuous
deletion layer feature of es-ice should be used. The deletion layer normally occurs at some
fixed number of layers above the highest bottom face in the template. By creating attachment
boundaries under specified edges, we can create distinct regions. In each region, the deletion
layer is a fixed number of cell layers above the highest bottom face. The deletion layer can
thus be made discontinuous, allowing the penetration of a cylinder head component into the
piston or a piston component into the cylinder head.
The attachment boundaries are created by making edges on the surface of the template and
saving them into Eset 11. Eset 11 has been reserved for edges that unmerge their vertices and
all the underlying vertices in the z-direction within the template. This unmerging process
occurs during the “Star Setup” operation if the “Add cuts to template” option is activated.

Isolate the bottom-most edge of the spark plug and save it into
Eset 11. Then activate the “Add cuts to template” button in
the Star Setup panel.
Figure 4-58: Template: Edge Saved to Eset 11
The default values used for the other parameters can be

found by ‘Loading’ the file ‘template.ice.used’ from the
‘Create Template’ tool. It is recommended to check these
parameters, reload the ‘template.ice’ image and change the
parameters if necessary. Enter a value of “46” for the “BDC
cylinder layers” parameter to increase it from the default
and enter a value of “11” for the “Bottom small layers”
parameter to use the thin spacing for the bottom 11 template
cell layers used to model the piston. Then click “Ok” to
accept the new values and close the panel. Then in the Cre-
ate Template panel click the “Make Template” button to
make a new save_ice file with the new parameters and
then click the “Read Template” button with the option
changed to “Modify Template” so that the new template
information is read and applied without losing our previous
work. This save_ice file is included with the other tuto-
rial example files.
The user is recommended to save the work up to this point
by saving the current working session into a new
save_es-ice filename. The work to this point has been
saved to the save_es-ice.4-final file of the tutorial
example files.



Chapter 5 Setting up for STAR-CD from within es-ice

As part of the set-up process, we will be writing out a variety of files for pro-STAR. In es-ice,
the user has the option of writing these files for a specific version of pro-STAR. By default, it
is assumed that pro-STAR Version 3.102 or higher is going to be used.
Another part of the set-up process will be to check the mesh at certain, critical crank angles.
5.1 Star Setup

To generate the files that are required by pro-STAR and
STAR-CD, we click the “Star Setup” button in the Select
panel to open the Star Setup panel and then click the “Star
setup” button. Several files will be created with this process
that will make the analysis setup much easier.
5.2 Creating and Reading Results to Check the Mesh

So far, no complete mesh that we have seen in an es-ice win-
dow has been an actual mesh that would be used with STAR-
CD for flow calculations. To check an actual mesh, we have
to first create it and then read it into our current session. The
user should be warned that after we have read in a created
result to our es-ice session, the session is altered and is no
longer suitable to be saved to a save_es-ice file. There-
fore, it is recommended that the user save a save_es-ice
file just before creating results.
It is a good idea to create and examine results for a variety of
crank angles before investing CPU time in a STAR-CD anal-
ysis. Typically, the extreme crank angles are examined such
as the starting crank angle, TDC, BDC and the crank angles
that produce maximum valve lifts.
Click the “Create Results” button in the Select panel to open
the Create Results panel. Click the “Angle (deg)” button to
specify a crank angle at which to create a result. Edit the input
field to the desired crank angle and then click the “Create
Result” button. To read those result files into the current ses-
sion, click the “Read Result” button.
Below are section plots for results created at three different
crank angles. Each of these results was checked for negative
volumes via the check,negvol command and was found to
have no cells with negative volumes.

Figure 5-1: Created Result at TDC for Mapped (left) and Trimmed (right) Mesh
Figure 5-2: Created Result at Max. Valve Lift for Mapped (left) and Trimmed (right) Mesh
Figure 5-3: Created Result at BDC for Mapped (left) and Trimmed (right) Mesh

Note that the exhaust port does not appear after the exhaust valve closes because the “Exclude
on close” parameter has been activated. Also note that some lines running through the mesh
are not actual mesh lines but rather a result of plotting a section that awkwardly cuts through
cells at some places.
If we are satisfied with the mesh, then we are ready to exit es-ice and begin the necessary steps
within pro-STAR. We should exit without saving.
If we are not satisfied with the mesh, then we should resume the save_es-ice session and
make modifications that will produce more suitable results.
5.3 Decomposition for parallel analyses

es-ice has the capability to generate a decomposition set file
for running in parallel. Click on the “Decompose” button at
the bottom-left corner of the Star Setup panel to open the
Decompose panel. Change the “Materials” option to “Sepa-
rate” so that each of the ports are separated into different pro-
cessors. Edit the “Processors” input field to be the number of
processors for the decomposition and click the “Decompose”
button to begin the decomposition. With the defaults
accepted, this will write a file called template.set with a
decomposition using the “Sequential” method with the ports
and valves separated across the processors.
At the bottom of the panel are buttons that allow us to operate
on an existing set file. The “Cset” button makes the cells of
the indicated processor the current cell set. The “List” button
lists the number of cells in each set of the set file that are also
in the current cell set. The “Plot” button plots in succession
each set of the set file. The “File plot” button does this also, sending the output to the plot file
specified with the pfile command.
These buttons on the bottom of the panel can be used directly for meshes created with the
mapping method. For meshes created with the trimming method, the template cell and vertex
files created from the “Star setup” process need to first be imported. Use the Read Tool to read
in template.cel and template.vrt to the Template window using the “Replace”
option. Remember that this will change your es-ice session so that you should not save the
model afterwards. The model should be saved before reading in the cells and vertices.


Chapter 6 Setting up for STAR-CD from within pro-STAR

This chapter will detail the analysis setup procedure using pro-STAR Version 3.24.000. The
same procedure should be followed for any version of STAR-CD higher than v3.2x.
6.1 Preliminaries
If the user wants to work in a different directory to setup the model in pro-STAR, the follow-
ing files from the es-ice working directory will initially be needed:
es-ice.PNL
GRID_MOVE.NULL
MAKE_EV.BAT
READ_TMP.BAT
template.bnd
template.cel
template.cpl
template.vrt
6.2 Using the Automatically-Generated Panel

Start pro-STAR and open es-ice.PNL which was automatically created during the “Star
setup” procedure.
Click the first button of the panel entitled “Resize”. This will resize the param.prp file and
create a new one using the memory command.
Click the second button of the panel entitled “Model”. This will read in the boundary, cells,
couples and vertices of the model which was exported from es-ice during the “Star setup” pro-
cedure. Some default model settings will also be set. The output of this process is also written
to a file called READ_TMP.OUT.
Each region of the flow that can potentially be separated from other regions due to valve
motion is a separate material. Different regions of the template are automatically assigned dif-
ferent material types according to how they may be separated due to valve motion.
Click the third button of the panel entitled “Events”. This will create the events that are neces-
sary. The result is a <casename>.evn file. The output of this process is also written to a
file called MAKE_EV.OUT.
Since the latter two steps involve many commands, it is difficult to see any comments made
by pro-STAR. It is thus recommended to search the two output files created for any warnings
or error messages. For example, the following unix command can be used in the current work-
ing directory:
egrep ‘WARNING|ERROR’ *.OUT

Here is a list of the model settings that have automatically been set in pro-STAR at this point:
1. The “Time Domain” has been set to the “Transient” option in Select Analysis Features
2. The “Density” has been set to the “Ideal-f(T,P)” option for all material types in Molec-
ular Properties
3. The “Turbulence model” has been set to the “K-E/High Reynolds Number” option for
all material types in Turbulence Models
4. The “Temperature Calculation On” has been set with “Static Enthalpy” for “Conserva-
tion” and “Thermal” for “Enthalpy” for all material types in Thermal Models
5. The “Monitoring cell number” and default “Reference Data” (“Pressure” of 1.e+05 Pa,
“Temperature” of 273 K and “Reference Pressure Cell Number” same as “Monitoring cell
number”) have been set for all material types in Monitoring and Reference Data
6. All wall boundaries have been divided into various different boundary regions
7. For each port that was mapped in es-ice, a “Pressure” type boundary region has been
defined for those port faces; otherwise a “Wall” type boundary region is defined for those port
faces which needs to be changed
8. Switch 79 has been activated which uses an alternative communication mode for mov-
ing mesh analyses, reducing the I/O between STAR and Ice
9. The “Time Step Size” has been set to 0.1 degree crank angle
10. The reverse background/foreground and Phong light shading has been set for plotting

6.3 Assigning Boundary Conditions

The user should now follow standard pro-STAR practices in assigning the boundary condi-
tions at the automatically-defined boundary regions of the intake and exhaust arms. In the
simplest case, pressure boundary conditions set to 0 relative pressure (1E+5 Pascals absolute
pressure) can be selected. This will result in a flow that is driven by the piston motion. The
STARGUIde will be used for this setup.
1. Go to Define Boundary Conditions -> Define Boundary Regions

2. Select a boundary region for one of the port faces (note that initially it may be defined
as a wall) and change it to a “Pressure” boundary type, if necessary
3. Enter the appropriate “Region Name” to label the boundary region and choose “Stan-
dard” for “Option”
4. For the intake port face, choose “On” for “Envir Press” and “Off” for “Mean”. For the
exhaust port face, choose “Off” for “Envir Press” and “On” for “Mean”.
5. Enter a value of “0.1” for the “Turb. Intensity” and a value of “0.01” for the “Length”
6. Click the “Apply” button and repeat for the boundary region on the other port face

6.4 Setting Analysis Controls

In this section, various analysis control settings are suggested. Again, the STARGUIde will be
used for this setup.
1. Go to Analysis Controls -> Solution Controls -> Solution Method

2. Reduce the value for “Under-Relax. for Press. Correction” to “0.7”
3. Click the “Apply” button

1. Go to Analysis Controls -> Equation Behavior -> Primary Variables

2. Click on the “Differencing Schemes” tab
3. Select “MARS” as the differencing scheme for momentum and turbulence

1. Go to Analysis Controls -> Output Controls -> Monitor Numeric Behavior

2. Activate “Report CPU Time”, “Echo Input Data”, “Print Iteration Residuals and Con-
servation Checks” and “Print Inner Iteration Residuals”
3. Set the “Number of Highest Residuals to Print” to a value of “3”

1. Go to Analysis Controls -> Output Controls -> Analysis Output

2. Set the “Solution Output Frequency” to a value of “10” and set the “Backup Fre-
quency” to a value of “300”
4. Click on the “Transient” tab
5. Set “Post Frequency” 5 degrees crank angle
6. Check the cell post quantities that are desired in the solution

1. Go to Analysis Preparation/Running -> Set Run Time Controls

2. Set the “Run for” to “370 degrees” crank angle of the intake and compression stroke
from 350-720 degree crank angle
3. In the “Time Step Option”, check that the period start time is “350 degrees” and spec-
ify the time step for period as 0.1 degrees
This concludes the task of defining basic control settings within pro-STAR for an in-cylinder
analysis. Three main tasks commonly applied to cold-flow simulations that were neglected
here were defining time-varying boundary conditions, initial field values and scalars to moni-
tor intake charge behavior. These are not specific to analyses with es-ice and thus can be
found documented in the STAR-CD User Guide.

6.5 File Writing

Follow the usual final steps in pro-STAR of writing the geometry file, problem file and sav-
ing the model:
1. Use the pull-down menus at the top of the plotting window and choose “File” ->
“Write Geometry File” to open the Geometry File Write panel
2. Change the “Scale Factor” to 0.001 (our model was built using millimeters) and click
the “Apply” button to write the geometry file
“Write Problem File” to open the Problem File Write panel
4. Click the “Apply” button to write the problem file
“Quit” to open the Quit pro-STAR panel
6. Click the “Save & Quit” button to save the model and quit the pro-STAR session


Chapter 7 Running the Analysis

This chapter outlines the steps required to run an analysis in serial, parallel and batch.
7.1 File Organization and Directory Structure

If the user wishes to run the analysis in a new directory, the following files from the es-ice
working directory are initially needed:
Ice
mvmesh.sh
<casename>.evn
<casename>.geom
<casename>.mdl
<casename>.prob
<casename>.set (If running in parallel)
<casename>.drp (If running a droplet calculation)
param.prp
parm.inc
save_ice_after_map
7.2 Running the Analysis

1)Running the analysis in serial:
To run the analysis in serial, just type ‘star’ at the unix/Linux command prompt. Different
options that may be useful are
star -dp : Running the analysis with double precision
star -restart (or -norestart) : Specify whether the analysis should start from the <casename>.pst
file (or not, if specified in the .prob file). This file should be present in the working directory.
2) Running the analysis in parallel:

For running in parallel, the .mdl and .evn files must be copied to the <casename>_0001 folder.
Insert the statement: “# MCOPY = <casename>.mdl <casename>.evn” in the mvmesh.sh file.
To run the analysis in parallel with n processors on a local node, type:
star -decompmeth=s n
The decomposition is read from a file <casename>.set. This option must be used to decom-
pose the mesh, and the default decomposition is NOT allowed in es-ice. Please make sure that
the filename for the .set file should be the same as the .mdl file.

To run in parallel with 2 processors on a host called 'linux35' type:

star -decompmeth=s linux35,2
If you wish to select an additional resource (host1) for running the moving mesh code, use the
following option:
star -mvmeshhost=host1 -decompmeth=s linux35,2
The above commands use the default settings for 'MPI implementation'. To change this option
to MPICH, use the following option: -mpi=mpich
star -mvmeshhost=host1 -decompmeth=s -mpi=mpich linux35,2
Other options are lam, gm, fuji etc.
In summary, to run the analysis in parallel with 2 processors on host1, 2 processors on host2,
and the external moving mesh code on host3 and with 'mpich' as the MPI implementation,
type:
star -decompmeth=s -mpi=mpich -mvmeshhost=host3 host1,2 host2,2
3) To run in batch, the following commands should be executed:

star -decompmeth=s -mpi-mpich -batch
If the user wishes to have an additional resource for the moving mesh code:
star -decompmeth=s -mpi-mpich -nooverload -batch
This will create a batch script batch.sh, which can be submitted to the queuing system with the
appropriate command. For eg. with PBS:
qsub -l nodes=n ./batch.sh
Please note that with the -nooverload option, an additional resource should be added in the
above command line.
4) If running on a cluster, the following changes should be made:

The # EXEC line in mvmesh.sh should have an absolute path pointing to the Ice executable.
For eg. if you are running in a directory “/data/people/user1/es-ice/tutorial/“, and the Ice exe-
cutable is in the directory “/data/people/user1/es-ice/tutorial/ICE-DIR” it should be: “# EXEC
= /data/people/user1/es-ice/tutorial/ICE-DIR/Ice” and not “# EXEC = ICE-DIR/Ice”
Also, for running with the -nooverload option on a cluster, the Ice executable has to be copied
to the <casename>_0001 folder. For this, insert a line: “# MCOPY = /data/people/user1/es-
ice/tutorial/ICE-DIR/Ice” in the mvmesh.sh file.

Oftentimes the Fortran compiler is installed only on the head node of the cluster. If running
with subroutines, the analysis has to be started interactively on the head node to compile the
subroutines, and killed as soon as they are compiled. Now the batch job can be submitted to
the queuing system.
Additional command line options for ‘star’ can be found by typing ‘star -h’ on the command
line.


Chapter 8 Running the Analysis with ahead files
8.1 Ahead Files

For trimmed meshes, Ice needs significantly longer time to create meshes at events. Thus,
while creating meshes on fly, STAR has to wait until Ice finishes moving and smoothing the
vertices, resulting in an inefficient use of the available resources.
Instead of creating meshes on the fly while running an analysis, Ice can create meshes ahead
of time, and save them as “ahead files”. This needs to be done only for the meshes at events,
as it is the most time consuming process. For times in between the events Ice finds the vertex
positions by interpolation which is significantly faster and similar in both mapped and
trimmed models. The mesh ‘ahead files’ can be created using multiple cpus, thus making opti-
mum use of the available resources, and reducing real time for results.
The mesh ahead files are created using a shell script. Below is a sample file, “create-ahead-
script-63-80.sh”:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#!/bin/sh
./Ice -star=save_ice_after_map -star-interpolate -do-events-ahead -event=63 -events-ahead=17 -events-ahead-
processes=2 -write-events-ahead=ahead63-80.read
gzip ahead101-120.read
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The above script creates 2 meshes at every event starting at event 63 and ending at 80. It is
assumed that the machine has 2 (or more) cpus, hence the number of processes for calculating
events ahead is specified as 2. The file in which the meshes will be stored is ahead63-80.read.
The filename as well as extension can be arbitrary. Finally, as the files are big, there is a com-
mand to gzip the file. This step is optional.
The starting event (at time zero) can be obtained from the make_ev.tab file, for which the time
is zero. Here’s a section of the make_ev.tab file:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
59 -5 350 >15 8 7
60 -4 350 >14 8 7
61 -3 350 >13 8 7
62 -2 350 >12 8 7
63 0 350 12 8 7
64 0.000166666 352 12 8 7
65 0.000722707 358.672 >13 >7 7
66 0.000803606 359.643 13 7 >8
0.000833333 360 Geometric extreme.
67 0.0017007 370.408 >14 >6 8

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this case, it is event #63. The meshes have to be created until the last event. Hence, it is
advisable to perform a StarSetup with an ending angle slightly beyond the desired end of the
calculation. As seen from the above script, it is necessary that the script files, the
save_ice_after_map and the Ice executable are in the same directory. Alternatively, they can
be in any location, but it has to be correctly specified in the script file.
The output of the Ice command should be directed to a .log file :
./create-ahead-script-63-80.sh > create-ahead-63-80.log
After Ice completes creating the meshes, one can check the log file for errors due to negative
(or non-positive volumes). If there are no errors, the ahead files should be copied (and
unzipped) into the directory where one needs to run the analysis. The mvmesh.sh file needs to
be appended with additional flags to read the meshes from the ‘.read files’:
# FLAGS = -read-events-ahead-later = ahead63-80.read
Each ‘.read’ file needs a separate flag. If running in parallel, the flag should be:
# FLAGS = -read-events-ahead-later = ../ahead63-80.read
Please note that if running on a cluster, the above path for ahead63-80.read should be speci-
fied as an absolute path.
With these modifications, one can start running the analysis as given in Chapter 7. Please note
that one can add flags for reading the ahead file in the mvmesh.sh file even though the ahead
file is not in the working directory, and start running the analysis. The ahead files can be cre-
ated on a differenct machine/processor while the analysis is running and copied in the direc-
tory during run-time.

Chapter 9 Post-processing Basics

The following post-processing was performed using pro-STAR v3.24.000.
1. Open the local pro-STAR and type evfile,connnect to connect to the events file
2. Type trload,, to load the transient post-processing file
3. Type store,iteration,<iteration number> to load a particular iteration
4. Type cset,newset,fluid to select the appropriate active cells for the loaded iteration
5. Type cplot to see the active cells
6. Continue on as you would for any post-processing session
Figure 9-1: Velocity Vectors After 1200 Time Steps (470 DCA)

Figure 9-2: Relative Pressure After 1200 Time Steps (470 DCA)

APPENDICES
The es-ice User Manual Appendix A
Appendix A Functionality and GUI Overview

This appendix provides an overview of various es-ice functionalities. It also provides descrip-
tions of various buttons, options and parameters in GUI panels. Note that use of the “Help on
Context” button from the Select panel also provides similar information of GUI panels.
A.1 Plotting and Text Outputs

es-ice provides information visually through the plotting of meshes and various elements in
two separate windows, the Template and Geometry plotting windows. Most plotting functions
can be accessed through the Plot Tool panel, which appears by default in the upper-left corner
of the screen when the program is started. This panel consists of several buttons and toggle
options as well as providing access to the Plot Options panel. It is also possible to plot to post-
script or pro-STAR neutral files. es-ice, however, also outputs various text information which
can usually be seen in the main es-ice, Child output and Help windows. Text information relating
to available mouse functions are also output to the bottom of the Template and Geometry win-
dows. Most of these text outputs can also be written externally to files.
A.1.1 The Plot Tool Panel

The Plot Tool panel appears by default in the upper-left corner of the screen when es-ice is
started. It provides GUI functionality for plotting in the Template and Geometry windows. The
views and toggle options for the two plotting windows are set independently of each other.
Note that a few of the toggle options are different depending on which plotting window is cur-
rently active. If the panel is accidentally closed, it can be opened again using the pull-down
menus from the main es-ice window and choosing “Tools” > “Plot”.
rotation cube “Views” pull-down menu
view memory buttons
“Plot Options” panel
“Spline” and “Vshell”

if “Geometry” window
is active
active plotting
window unavailable if “Geometry”
window is active
The upper-left section of the Plot Tool panel has a rotation cube to set the plotting view. When
rotating large models with the mouse, it may be faster to use this rotation cube rather than the
plotting window. Similar to plot rotation functions, left-click and drag to rotate the rotation
cube (double left-click and drag to rotate in the plane of the screen). Alternatively, the slider
to the right and the two sliders below the cube can be used. Left-click the “A” button or mid-
dle-click on the cube to apply the view and replot the active plotting window. Left-click the
“R” button to revert the cube back to the current view in the active plotting window.
Version 1.04 page A-1

Appendix A The es-ice User Manual
There are two rows of view memory buttons in the middle-right section of the Plot Tool panel.
These allow the user to save and recall multiple plotting views. Each of the numbered memory
buttons, 1 through 9, are memory locations. Clicking on a deactive memory button activates it
and saves the current view to memory. Clicking on an active memory button recalls the plot-
ting view and replots. To delete a saved view from memory, click the “D” button to activate it
and then click the memory button with the saved view that is to be deleted. That memory but-
ton will be cleared and deactivated (the “D” button will also be automatically deactivated).
The following table documents the Plot Tool panel:
TEXT IN PANEL DESCRIPTION

Snormal/Light Toggle options to set whether the section normal (“Snormal”) and
lighting (“Light”) changes (on) or stays fixed (off) when the plotting
view changes
On/Off The “On” button allows the user to draw a zoom box to zoom in and
the “Off” button zooms out (and replots)
Back Button to go back to the previous plotting view
Tied Button to set the plotting view and type of the active plotting win-
dow to be the same as that of the other deactive window
Splane Button to set the section plane by using the mouse to click two
points, set the plotting view to be normal to it and replot
Views Opens the “Views” pull-down menu
1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/D Numbered toggle buttons used to store/recall saved plotting views
into/from memory while the “D” button is used to delete them
Plot Options Opens the Plot Options panel
A/R The “A” button applies the plotting view of the rotation cube to the
plotting window (and replots) and the “R” button reverts the view of
the cube back to that of the active plotting window
Template/Geometry Toggle options to set the active plotting window (one and only one
of these options can be active)
Hidden/Section Toggle options to set the plot type (one and only one of these
options can be active)
Fill/Shade The “Fill” toggle option sets whether the cell faces are shown (on)
or not (off) and “Shade” sets whether the colors of the cell faces are
shaded (on) or not (off)
Triad/Local Toggle options to set whether the triad (“Triad”) and local coordi-
nate systems (“Local”) are shown (on) or not (off) in the plotting
window
page A-2 Version 1.04


Back For the Template window, this toggle option sets whether the backs
of cell faces (face normals pointing away from user) are shown (on)
or not (off). For the Geometry window, this toggle option sets
whether the shells are colored green or red according to outwardly
or inwardly pointing face normals (on), respectively, or not (off).
Interior/Marked/ Toggle options to set whether interior faces (“Interior”), marked
Vnum faces (“Marked”) and vertex numbers (“Vnum”) are shown (on) or
not (off). Note that the “Marked” toggle option is automatically acti-
vated as part of the cmark command and is therefore available only
in the Template window.
Mesh/Edge/Spline/ Toggle options to set whether mesh lines (“Mesh”), edges (“Edge”
Patch/Vshell/Vertex in Template window), splines (“Spline” in Geometry window),
patches (“Patch” in Template window), virtual shells (“Vshell” in
Geometry window) and vertices (“Vertex”) are shown (on) or not
(off) in the plotting window
A.1.2 The “Views” Pull-Down Menu

Various common plotting views can be set directly through an
options menu in the Plot Tool panel. Left-clicking the “Views”
pull-down menu located in the middle-right section of the Plot
Tool panel will show the available options. Note that these
options are written in command format. The following table
documents the options in the “Views” pull-down menu:
OPTION DESCRIPTION
Angle 0 Set the viewing angle to zero and replot
View -1/0/1 -1/0/1 Set the plotting view by defining the
-1/0/1 vector from which the mesh is viewed,
set the viewing angle to zero and replot
View Face Click on a cell face, set the view to be
normal to that picked face and replot
View Snormal Set the view to be the same as the sec-
tion normal and replot
View Reverse Set the view to be the reverse of the current plotting view and replot
View Keep The next time an es-ice model file is resumed, keep the current plot-
ting view and currently saved views
View Write/Read Write/read the commands to set the current plotting view to/from a file

A.1.3 The Plot Options Panel

Several plotting options are also available separately through the
Plot Options panel. To open it, click the “Plot Options” button in the
middle-right section of the Plot Tool panel. The following table doc-
uments the toggle options in the Plot Options panel:
TOGGLE OPTION DESCRIPTION

Label plotting win- Show (on) or hide (off) the text on the
dows bottom of the plotting window
Plot active window Plot the active window first (on) or last
first in Dplot (off) for double plots
Use active window For double plots, plot both meshes using
type the plot type of the active window (on) or
plot each mesh using the plot type of their
respective windows (off)
Raise window Automatically raise (on) or not (off) the
when plotting window when plotting
Ignore CP matches Ignore (on) or not (off) the couples when
when plotting plotting
Plot concave faces When plotting warped quadrilateral faces,
exactly divide them into triangular faces that will
minimize the sum of their areas (on) or
divide them randomly (off)
Show large cross Change the cursor for pick mode so that the crosshairs extend out to
with cursor the edge of the plotting window (on) or keep the default (off)
Shape Zoom box When the user draws a zoom box, force it to have the shape and
like window aspect ratio of the plotting window (on) or not (off)
Dynamically zoom Activate (on) or deactivate (off) the ability to dynamically move the
section point section point without changing the plotting view by zooming in and
out with the mouse (middle-click and drag)
Show Spline/Edge Show (on) or hide (off) the ID numbers and arrows for splines/edges
numbers
Plot Spline/Edge Show (on) or not (off) the ID numbers of splines/edges on a white
numbers in boxes background box which may improve visualization of those numbers
Plot Spline breaks Plot broken spline knots differently than other knots (on) or not (off)
differently

Show hidden Edge Show (on) or hide (off) the hidden segments of edges
segments
Show Patch num- Show (on) or hide (off) the legend for patches when they are dis-
bers played
Plot Template ver- Show (on) or not (off) a line between the original (tshow,old) and
tex displacements mapped (tshow,new) locations of vertices in the current vertex set
Add date to plot Show (on) or not (off) the current date above the title
title
Color unfilled Sec- Plot mesh lines in an unfilled section plot using a color based on the
tion lines cell type of one of the cells (on) or using just one color (off)
A.1.4 Plotting to a File

Plots and double plots can be output to a file by executing the cplot,file and dplot,file com-
mands, respectively. By default, the plot files are written in postscript format to a file called
es-ice.ps. The format of the plot files can be changed by using the pfile,type command.
Other than postscript, the only other available formats are coded and binary pro-STAR neu-
tral plot formats. To change the root of the plot filename, use the pfile,name command. Note
that the extension of the plot filename will automatically be set to ps if writing in postscript
format and plot if writing in pro-STAR neutral plot formats.
The opening and closing of plot files are done automatically by es-ice. As a result, there are no
specific commands to do so. The plot file can be used immediately after writing to it.
A.1.5 Text Outputs

es-ice outputs text information in a variety of ways. The main es-ice window echoes inputted
commands and usually provides a response from the execution of those inputted commands.
For more information about a command, the help command can be executed which opens a
separate Help window. The status of processes running in the background such as an
ammbatch or Ice process are outputted to a Child output window which opens when neces-
sary. Most of these texts can also be outputted to a file.
The top section of the main es-ice window is the major display area for text information. Exe-
cuted commands and any responses from them are mostly outputted there. Note that most but-
tons from the GUI panels have equivalent commands that are executed and the text is usually
outputted to this section of the window. It is also possible to use the ofile command to write
the text output to a file.
The middle section of the main es-ice window is used for inputting commands, but there is a
small area above it that es-ice uses mostly to ask questions such as “What is the name of the
file?” or “Are you sure you want to overwrite it? [Yes/No]”. It is possible to left-click certain
words of these questions as shortcuts. Questions with the word “file” in it can be left-clicked
to open the File panel so that a file can be picked directly. Questions with “[Yes/No]” options
can be answered by left-clicking the desired response.

The bottom section of the main es-ice window echoes the commands that have been executed.
These echoed commands are also written to a file called es-ice.echo. Note that the excep-
tions are commands that affect the plotting view when it is changed using the mouse.
main text area
questions
command inputs
command echoes search direction

search text
search location
The Help window usually opens when the help command is executed to output the requested
information. It can also be opened by using the “Tools” pull-down menu from the main es-ice
window and choosing “Help”. The bottom of this window offers searching features to locate
information easier. Type the text to search in the available input section and press “Enter”. By
default, the current text in the main text area above will be used to search but the user can
change the search location to be all of the help text. Up and down arrows are also available to
search forwards or backwards, respectively. The “Function:” input area on the bottom-left
section of the window shows the current command on display in the main text area above.
Type a new command and press “Enter” to display the help for another command.
Text output may also appear in a Child output window. This window usually provides status
information for child processes, which are processes started by es-ice that runs in the back-
ground such as the ammbatch or Ice executable. The contents of this window may be
cleared or copied to a file using the child command.

A.2 Template Generation

One of the early major processes of meshing an in-cylinder model is the generation of a tem-
plate. Whether the trimming or mapping method is being used for meshing, a template must
first be created. Even for axisymmetric/non-axisymmetric sector/full-360 meshes, a template
is required. The Create Template panel provides access to the “sections” method to create a 2D
template, other panels containing 2D and 3D template parameters, the Trim panel used to trim
and repair the template with the trimming method and the Sector panel to create axisymmetric/
non-axisymmetric sector/full-360 meshes. Remember that different templates exist depending
on the type of mesh to be created and depending on the meshing method to be used.
A.2.1 The Create Template Panel

Clicking on the “Create Template” button in the Select panel
will open the Create Template panel, which provides GUI
functionality for the 2D and 3D template generation process.
This panel contains action buttons as well as access to several
other panels containing template parameters.
The top row of the Create Template panel contains access to a
listing of the settings of template parameters, which does not
include those for the 2D sections. By default, this listing is
stored internally but if it is written to a file, the default name
would be template.ice as seen in the input box. Remem-
ber that a value of “0” for template parameters usually means
that a calculated default is applied. A listing of the settings of
template parameters after defaults have been calculated is also stored internally. To load the
calculated parameters used in the template, change the filename to template.ice.used
and click the “Load” button. The calculated parameter values will be seen in the appropriate
panels. It is not, however, recommended to keep the calculated values in the panels because if
something is changed, then it is useful to have es-ice calculate new parameter values. As a
result, the calculated user parameters should be loaded to only look at, but then the necessary
parameter values should be returned to their original “0” values. This is done by changing the
filename in the input box back to template.ice and clicking the “Load” button again.
Below this top row in the Create Template panel are buttons to open other panels. Some panels
are general and apply to the entire cylinder while some panels are specific to a valve, arm or
section. The Sector panel is also available here, but further discussion of this panel and special
feature is documented in the next appendix.
There is another input box in the middle section of the Create Template panel with the default
filename of save_ice. This is a file that is written by es-ice at the end of the template gener-
ation process and contains detailed information about the initial template before any trimming
or mapping is performed. This file is written when the “Make Template” button is clicked, but
the current es-ice session and model is not updated until the “Read Template” is clicked.
There are options available to the right of this button that determine which current information
is retained when the template is read in because default edges and splines are created automat-
ically when templates are read in.

The current “sections” method for creating the 2D template replaces the previous “base”
method. To be compatible with older models that use the “base” method, this functionality
continues to exist but will be removed in the future. The “Base” and “Make Base” buttons as
well as some parameters are associated with the old “base” method and will not be discussed.
The following table documents the Create Template panel:

Load/Read/Write Load from internal memory (“Load”), read from an external file
(“Read”) or write to a file (“Write”) the values of the template
parameters corresponding to the file specified in the input box
General/Trim/Cyl- Open the General parameters panel (“General”), Trim parameters panel
inder/Events/Sector (“Trim”), Cylinder parameters panel (“Cylinder”), Events parameters
panel (“Events”) or Sector panel (“Sector”)
Valves 2D/Valves Choose from the available valve numbers to open the Valve n 2D
parameters panel (“Valves 2D”) or Valve n parameters panel
(“Valves”), where n is the chosen valve number
Arms Choose from the available arm numbers to open the Arm n parameters
panel, where n is the chosen arm number
Base Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
Sections Choose from the available section numbers to open the Section n Tool
panel, where n is the chosen section number
Store Connect all the matching sections together, smooth the mesh lines
and store the result internally as a 2D template
Save file The name of the file that stores initial template information before
any mapping or trimming is performed on it
Make Template Calculate and write the initial template information to the file speci-
fied above as “Save file”
Read Template/ Read in the initial template from the file specified above as “Save
Replace Curves/ file” (“Read Template”) using the following options: “Replace
Append Curves/ curves” to replace all edges/splines with the automatically created
Ignore Curves/ default ones; “Append Curves” to append the automatically created
Modify Template default edges/splines to the existing ones; “Ignore Curves” to ignore
and not use the automatically created default edges/splines; “Modify
Template” to attempt updating the template without losing any work
previously done
Stop Stop and kill the current child process
Make Base Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
Trim Open the Trim panel

A.2.2 The General Parameters Panel

Clicking on the “General” button in the Create Template panel
opens the General parameters panel.
The first parameter at the top of the panel is a pull-down menu
to select the “Engine type”. The options are “Diesel” and “Gas-
oline” and the appropriate options should be chosen.
The next parameter is another pull-down menu to select the
“Base style”. The options are “4 Valve”, “2 / 4 Valve”, “2
Valve”, “1 + 2 Valve”, “3 Valve” and “5 Valve”. These options
refer to basic default configurations for the template. They are
starting points from which the user may begin designing a spe-
cific 2D template. The “4 Valve” option gives four sections, one
for each valve, where each section is a quadrant of the cylinder.
The “2 / 4 Valve” option gives two sections, one for each valve, where each is a quadrant of
the cylinder. It is intended for four valve cylinders with a symmetry plane so that only half of
the cylinder needs to be modeled (valves 1 and 2). The “2 Valve” option gives two sections,
each representing half of the cylinder. The “1 + 2 Valve” option gives three sections, one rep-
resenting half the cylinder and two representing quadrants of the cylinder. The “3 Valve”
option gives three sections, where each represents an equal portion (120°) of the cylinder.
Finally, the “5 Valve” option gives five sections, where each represents an equal portion of
the cylinder.
It is possible to create a cylinder with no valves, but one of these basic configurations must be
chosen to continue. The following figure shows default configurations for the available base
styles viewed from the +z-axis with no plotting angle. The section numbering is also shown as
well as which boundary is considered the “bottom”, “left” and “right”.

2 Ri Le 1
Bo Bo 2 Ri Le 1
Bo Bo
Bo Bo
3 4
Ri Le
view,0,0,1 2 / 4 Valve
angle,0
4 Valve # = section number
Bo = bottom
Le = left
Ri = right
2 Ri 2
Le Ri
Bo Bo 1
Bo
Bo 1 Bo
Le
Bo
Le
3 3
view,0,0,1
3 Valve angle,0 1 + 2 Valve
# = section number
Bo = bottom
Le = left
Ri = right
2
Ri L
Bo e 1
Ri
Bo
1 3
Bo
Bo
2 Bo
Bo
Bo
5
Ri
Le
4
2 Valve 5 Valve
Figure A-1: Available Base Styles and Nomenclature

The “Use diagonals” option appears at the bottom of the General parameters panel. Similar to
the “base” method for creating 2D templates, this is an old feature that has been replaced with
newer functions. It still exists to accommodate old models, but it will be removed in the future
and should therefore not be used (keep the default “No” option).
The following table documents the parameters in the General parameters panel:
PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
Cylinder radius Radius of the cylinder (in model units)
Cylinder wrap layers Number of radial cell layers wrapped around the entire cylinder
Cylinder wrap width Radial width of the wrap layers (in model units)
Port wrap cells Number of cell layers extruded from the ports and arms [default: 1]
Port wrap thickness Total thickness of the port wrap cells (in model units) [default:
thickness of the unextruded cells at the valve seat]
Figure A-2: Example of Cylinder Wrap Layer (left) and Port Wrap Cells (right)

A.2.3 The Trim Parameters Panel

Clicking on the yellow “Trim”
button in the Create Template panel
opens the Trim parameters panel.
Note that there are some parame-
ters that are deactivated and
unable to be modified. This
depends on various other template
parameters and are discussed
below.
The first parameter at the top of
the panel is a pop-up menu to
select whether or not the trimming
method is to be used. An option of
“Yes” to “Template to trim” will
allow the trimming method to be
used for meshing.
The “Expand radius” parameter
also has a pop-up menu which will
activate or deactivate the next 5
parameters below it if the “Yes”
option is used. With the “Yes”
option, the user is able to create a
template that is larger than the cyl-
inder radius at and above the z=0
combustion dome level.
The following table documents the parameters in the Trim parameters panel:
Piston DZ Global z-coordinate offset from TDC of the piston to be used for
trimming (negative number to move the piston down)
Layers below/ Number of cell layers in the template below/above the bottom of
above each valve
Cell height Average height of the cells of the template [default: calculated based
on valve geometry]
Collapsing layers Number of cell layers in the cylinder that the cell activation/deacti-
vation feature will be applied to
Radial expansion Radial distance the template should be expanded beyond the cylinder
radius between “Expanded radius Z” and “Piston maximum Z”

Expanded radius Z/ Approximate z-coordinate at which the expansion from “Radial
Piston maximum Z expansion” parameter is at its maximum (“Expanded radius Z”) and
minimum (“Piston maximum Z”)
Radial extrusion/ The radial distance (“Radial extrusion”) and number of radial cell
Radial extrusion layers (“Radial extrusion cells”) the template should be radially
cells extruded above “Piston maximum Z”
Valve n lift The lift of valve n when the cylinder is trimmed. Section n of the 2D
base template should be created again after this parameter is changed
as the valve circle will be shifted.
Valve n layer The number of cell layers the bottom of valve n will be above the
bottoms of the valves that have this parameter set to a value of “0”
Port n radial/axial The length in the radial/axial directions of the cells of the template
cell length for port n. If it is set to a value of “0”, the length in the azimuthal
direction will be used.
Expanded radius Z
Piston maximum Z
Radial expansion
Radial extrusion
Figure A-3: Example of Various “Expand radius” Trim Parameters

A.2.4 The Cylinder Parameters Panel

Clicking on the “Cylinder” button in the Create Template
panel opens the Cylinder parameters panel.
The first parameter at the top of the panel is a pull-down
menu to select the “Dome type”. The next two parameters
are “Cut width (right)” and “Cut width (left)”. These param-
eters are deactivated unless the old “base” method is used
for generating the 2D template. Since the “sections” method
has replaced the old “base” method, these parameters should
no longer be used. They still exists to accommodate old
models, but they will be removed in the future.
The following table documents the parameters in the Cylin-
der parameters panel:
Dome type/Cut Outdated feature to be removed
width (right)/Cut in the future - do not use
width (left)
Roof axis (X/Y/Z) The approximate x-, y- and z-
coordinates of a ridge between
angled valves (in model units)
BDC/TDC cylinder Number of cell layers in the cylinder at BDC/TDC, including “Lay-
layers ers above dome” and if an arbitrary or match piston is used,
“Replaced layers”
Piston stroke length Specifies the piston stroke (in model units) [default: 2 times the
cylinder radius]
Piston sweep area 2 Used in conjunction with “Piston sweep area 2 layers” to influence
length/layers the cylinder cell layer spacing near the TDC position. The spacing
will be related to the ratio of “Piston sweep area 2 length” to “Pis-
ton sweep area 2 layers” (analogous to “Early reference lift” and
“Early reference cells” for valves)
Piston bottom layers Number of cell layers immediately above the piston that may be
used to model piston geometry [default: 2]. It must be 1 greater
than the number of layers being replaced by piston cells for serial
runs and 2 greater than the number of layers being replaced for par-
allel runs.

Bottom/Top small Number of cell layers immediately above the piston (“Bottom
layers small layers”) or below the lowest region of valve travel (“Top
small layers”) having the same small, thin spacing as the mesh near
the valves [default: 2]
Steps from small to Number of cell layers transitioning from the small, thinly spaced
large regions to the coarser, larger regions in the middle of the cylinder
Piston Z at TDC Z-coordinate of the piston at TDC (in model units). This is only
used in two cases when meshing with the mapping method: if the
flat piston is used and during “Map piston XYZ” when Geometry
Cset 2 is empty.
Valve lift DZ Height of the cells in the valve curtain if it can’t be calculated from
the valve lifts. This is usually deactivated unless the “Style” of all
the valves are “Closed” or “None”.
A.2.5 The Valve 2D Parameters Panel

Clicking on the “Valves 2D” pull-down menu in the Cre-
ate Template panel and choosing a numbered valve will
open the Valve 2D parameters panel for that valve. The
parameters in this panel control the arrangement of cells
within the valve face and in the region of concentric cells
extending outward from the valve. Note that the central
area of the valve face is meshed with a square pattern of
cells.
The bottom half of the panel contains parameter that are
deactivated unless the old “base” method is used for gen-
erating the 2D template. Since the “sections” method has
replaced the old “base” method, these parameters should
no longer be used. They still exists to accommodate old
models, but they will be removed in the future.
The following table documents the parameters in the Valve
2D parameters panel:
Circumferential Number of cells distributed around the valve in each concentric layer
cells (section) (selecting a value that is divisible by 4 yields a symmetric distribu-
tion of cells around the valve)
Bottom/Inner/Outer Number of radial cell layers between the square pattern in the valve
ring radial cells face and the bottom ring (“Bottom ring radial cells”), between the
bottom ring and the outer valve ring (“Inner ring radial cells”) or
between the outer ring and the end of the region of concentric cells
(“Outer ring radial cells”)

Circumferential Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
cells (base)
Lead inner/outer Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
offset
Wall lead/trail off- Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
set
Trail outer/inner Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
offset
Circumferential cells
Bottom ring radial cells
Inner ring radial cells Outer ring radial cells
Figure A-4: Example of the Valve 2D Parameters

A.2.6 The Valve Parameters Panel

Clicking on the “Valves” pull-down menu in the Create Tem-
plate panel and choosing a numbered valve will open the Valve
parameters panel for that valve. These parameters affect the
construction of the template in the z-direction.
The first parameter at the top of the panel is a pull-down menu
to select the “Style”. The options are “Normal”, “Stub”,
“Closed”, “None” and “Trimmed”. Depending on the option
chosen, any unnecessary parameters will be deactivated.
The “Normal” option means that the port and arm will be
meshed directly in es-ice using the mapping method. The
“Stub” option means that port and arm will be meshed in an
external program and later imported into the model. The
“Closed” option means that the valve will not move from its
closed position and only the bottom portion of the valve geom-
etry is used. The “None” option means that the valve motion
and valve geometry is completely ignored with a flat surface.
The “Trimmed” option means that the trimming method will
be used to create the mesh.
The second pull-down menu is used to activate the “Edge tri-
angle” option. If this is activated with the “Yes” option, then
the bottom edge of the valve at the chamfer will be filled with
prism cells.
The last pull-down menu at the bottom of the panel is used to
activate the “Exclude on close” option. If this is activated with
the “Yes” option, then the appropriate port will be excluded
from the solution when the valve closes for the last time dur-
ing the analysis range. This provides increased stability and a
small speed-up.
The following table documents the parameters in the Valve
parameters panel:
Style Valve styling to be chosen from 4 options if using the mapping
method and 1 option if using the trimming method
Solid cells Number of axial cell layers in the valve solid area
Edge triangle Choose whether the bottom edge of the valve at the chamfer will be
filled with prism cells all the way around (yes) or not (no)

Straight fill layers Indirectly specifies a distance over which layers will be filled in the
direction of valve motion rather than along the cylinder axis (not
useful with the shape piston option)
Chamber height Axial height of the valve chamber (in model units)
Chamber axial/ Number of axial/radial cell layers within the valve chamber
radial cells
Layers/Rings above Number of vertical (“Layers above dome”) and radial (“Ring above
dome dome”) cell layers that the valve seat is recessed into the cylinder
Guide outer radius/ Radial dimension (“Guide outer radius”), number of radial cell lay-
Guide radial cells/ ers (“Guide radial cells”) and axial dimension (“Guide depressed
Guide depressed height”) of the depressed valve guide (in model units)
height
Arm down height Distance between the top of the valve chamber and the top of the
port arm, measured parallel to the valve axis (in model units)
Guide trim fraction Fraction of radial cell layers that will be removed above the valve
chamber
Stub down height Distance between the top of the stub and a step increase in its radius,
measured parallel to the valve axis (in model units)
Stub trim fraction Fraction of radial cell layers that will be removed to yield the step
reduction in the radius of the cylindrical stub
Reference lift/cells Expected maximum travel of the valve in model units (“Reference
lift”) [default: taken from maximum in valve lift file] and maximum
number of cell layers through the valve curtain (“Reference cells”)
[default: scaled from “Circumferential cells” parameter]. The ratio of
“Reference lift” to “Reference cells” determines the cell spacing
through the valve curtain.
Early reference lift/ A second ratio used to modify the cell spacing through the valve cur-
cells tain near TDC. The cell spacing is approximately the ratio of “Early
reference lift” to “Early reference cells”, thus providing a way to
increase the number of cells in the valve curtain early in its lift with-
out increasing the number of cells at maximum lift.
Closed lift/cells The valve lift in model units (“Closed lift”) [default: 0.05] and num-
ber of cell layers through the valve curtain (“Closed cells”) [default:
1] corresponding to a closed valve
Exclude on close Choose whether the cells above the valve will be excluded (yes) or
not (no) from the calculations when the valve closes for the last time
during the analysis range

Stub
Normal
None
Closed
Figure A-5: The Four Available Valve Styles (Mapping Method Only)
reference
Cell Layers Through Valve Curtain
cells
early
reference
cells
Early reference not used

Early reference used
closed
cells
closed lift early reference lift reference lift

Valve Lift
Figure A-6: Effect of Lift Parameters on Valve Curtain Mesh During Valve Motion

Guide
outer Guide trim fraction
Guide radius
depressed Arm
height down
height
Chamber
Guide height
radial Chamber
cells Chamber axial
radial cells
cells
Layers above
dome
Rings above
dome
Seat
radial
cells
Edge
triangle
Solid
cells
Figure A-7: Selected Valve Parameters

A.2.7 The Arm Parameters Panel

Clicking on the “Arms” pull-down menu in the Create Template
panel and choosing a numbered arm will open the Arm parame-
ters panel for that arm. These parameters are only applied to
valves for which the “Normal” style has been selected in the
corresponding Valve parameters panel. Other styles result in the
deactivation of this panel.
Note that there are some parameters that are deactivated and
unable to be modified. The parameters that are deactivated
depends on the options for “Type” used.
The “Type” parameter has a pop-up menu to select between
“Separate” and “Siamese” options. Note that only valves 1 and
4 or valves 2 and 3 may be joined by “Siamese” connections.
The following table documents the parameters in the Arm
parameters panel:
Width layers Number of cell layers in the width of the arm
Height fraction Fraction that is multiplied with the “Chamber axial cells” parameter
in the Valve parameters panel to give the number of cell layers in the
height of the arm (the fraction of the valve chamber that will be
extended as the arm)
Length layers/ Number of cell layers in the length of the arm (“Length layers”) and
Length the length of the arm in model units (“Length”)
Axis X/Y/Z X/Y/Z-coordinate of a vector defining the axis of the arm (pointing
away from the valve)
Siamese start/stop Fraction of the arm length at which the joining of “Siamese” type
fraction arms begins/ends [default: 0.5/0.65]
Siamese layers Half the number of cell layers extruded between arms to join them

Height fraction
Siamese Arms Example
Length layers/
Length
Siamese
layers
Width
layers
Siamese
start
fraction
Siamese
stop
fraction
Figure A-8: Selected Arm Parameters and Siamese Arms Example (top-right inset)
A.2.8 The Events Parameters Panel

Clicking on the “Events” button in the Create Template panel
will open the Events parameters panel. The parameters in this
panel do not directly affect the initial template so they may
be modified before beginning to create the template.
The following table documents the parameters in the Events
parameters panel:
Crank angle start/ The starting/stopping crank angle for the transient analysis
stop (deg)
Engine RPM The engine speed

Connecting rod The length of the connecting rod (in model units)
length
Piston pin offset The offset of the piston pin (in model units). The convention used for
its sign is: let the axis of the crankshaft be the z-axis; let the direction
of rotation of the crankshaft be (X x Y); let the piston move parallel
to the positive x-axis; the piston pin offset is the negative of the y-
coordinate of the axis of the piston pin.
Valve lift periodic- Relates the engine cycle and the valve cycle. When a valve lift is
ity (deg) required, the crank angles in the valve lift file are used with this
parameter.
A.2.9 The Section Tool Panel and the Section Adjustment Points
Clicking on the “Sections” pull-down menu and choosing a
numbered section will open the Section Tool panel for that
section. This panel is used to create the 2D template using
the “sections” method.
Most of the parameters in this panel are deactivated since it
is recommended to make section modifications interac-
tively using the available adjustment points. The “Edit sec-
tion parameters” toggle option, however, can be activated
to allow all the parameters to be modified. The “Show all
section parameters” toggle option can be activated to
expand the panel and provide access to more parameters.
The valve0n.dat file is created with valve profile infor-
mation when the valve command is executed while the
valve,image command stores this information internally.
The “Load” and “Read valve” buttons next to that filename
near the middle of the panel are actions performed on valve
profile information. Remember that “Load” refers to load-
ing information from an internal source whereas “Read”
refers to reading information from an external file.
The valve0n.base file can be written with the “Write”
button near the bottom of the panel. This file contains 2D
section information. There are “Load” and “Read” buttons
next to this filename also to load or read 2D section infor-
mation, but they should not be confused with the valve pro-
file information.

The following table documents the Section Tool panel in its default size:

Bottom left/right (x,y)-coordinates of the bottom-left/bottom-right corner of the sec-
XY tion
Valve radius/Valve Radii of p2 or p3 (“Valve radius”) and p1 (“Valve inner radius”) of
inner radius the valve profile
Valve border width Radial distance past “Valve radius” that the next mesh line in the
“outer ring radial cells” is forced to be concentric
Left/Right triangle Option to choose whether the left or right triangle exists for the sec-
exists tion or not
Left/Right angle Angle between the left/right border of the section and the other bor-
(deg) der (usually the bottom)
Left/Right width Distance from the left/right border if block extrusion cells exist there
Bottom height Distance from the bottom if block extrusion cells exist there
Load/Read valve Buttons to load/read valve profile information and apply it to the sec-
(valve0n.dat) tion
Edit section param- Toggle option to activate and allow all parameters in the panel to be
eters modified (on) or not (off)
Reset Button to reset all section parameters to the defaults
Load/Read/Write Buttons to load/read/write section information
(valve0n.base)
Create/Adjust/ Buttons to create the section using the current parameters (“Create”),
Destroy/Close to enter the adjustment mode of the section to modify it graphically
(“Adjust”), to destroy the section (“Destroy”) and to close the panel
(“Close”)
Show all section Toggle option to fully expand the panel to show all section parame-
parameters ters (on) or to keep it at its default size (off)
The following images document the adjustment points when modifying a 2D template interac-
tively with the “sections” method (notice the text on the bottom of each window):

Valve - Circumferential
left-click
10 times
Valve - Bottom Ring
middle-click
3 times
Valve - Inner Ring
middle-click
2 times

Valve - Outer Ring
middle-click
3 times
Valve Rotation
left-click
left-click + drag

Valve Border
middle-click
middle-click + drag
right-click
middle-click
2 times

Attachment Vertex
= analogous points
left-click
left-click
Triangle Region
= analogous points
left-click
= analogous points
left-click
3 times

Block Extrusions - Side/Bottom

= analogous points
middle-click
middle-click + drag
right-click
middle-click
2 times

Bottom Positions
= analogous points
left-click
left-click + drag
middle-click + drag right-click + drag

Bottom Angle
left-click
right-click + drag
Side Angle
left-click
left-click + drag

A.3 Special Sets

There are 25 numbered sets available for each element of cells, vertices, edges, splines,
patches and vshells. Cells and vertices exist both in the Template and Geometry windows, while
the other elements exist in only one. Some of these numbered sets are labelled and used for
special purposes. These special sets are documented in the following table.
SET ID LABEL DESCRIPTION

Cset 1 Active cells [Template] Stores template cells of the computational
model. The template initially starts with cells that are
defined but not used and it is not possible to clear them.
Therefore, the cells used for the model need to be saved to
this special cell set.
Cset 3/ Cells below [Template] Used internally by es-ice and not recom-
4/ dome/Replaced mended for modification by the user
5 cells/Replace-
ment cells
Cset 1 Cylinder shells [Geometry] With the trimming method, stores geometry
shells of the cylinder wall and symmetry plane. With the
mapping method, stores geometry shells that template ver-
tices of the cylinder wall are projected to (otherwise, they
would be at the cylinder radius)


Cset 2 Piston shells [Geometry] With the trimming method, stores the piston
shells. With the mapping method, stores the piston shells
with the “Projected” piston method or stores the dummy
target shells of the piston with the “Shape” piston method.
Cset 3 Trimming sur- [Geometry] Used only with the trimming method: stores
face geometry shells to be used for the trimming process (usu-
ally all geometry shells except for the valves)
Eset 10 Diagonals to add Outdated feature to be removed in the future - do not use
Eset 11 Cuts to add Used only with the mapping method: stores edges to be
used for the placement of attachment boundaries with the
“discontinuous deletion layer” feature
Sset 3 Trimming fea- Used only with the trimming method: stores splines to be
tures converted to feature lines for the trimming process
Vset 1/ Piston vertices/ [Template] Used internally by es-ice and not recom-
2/ Free piston ver- mended for modification by the user
3 tices / Trim
extrusion verti-
ces/Piston verti-
ces on wall
Vset 4 Vertices to [Template] Used only with the mapping method: for each
project vertex stored, the bottom vertex of the cylinder in the same
vertex column will be put at the same XY-coordinates as
the top vertex of the cylinder in the same column
Vset 5 Vertices to fill [Template] Used only with the mapping method: for each
vertex stored, that vertex column will be smoothed along a
line between the top and bottom vertices of the cylinder in
the same column
Vset 6 Vertices to not [Template] Used only with the mapping method: for each
control vertex stored, that vertex column will be smoothed without
considering the location of other mapped vertices
Vset 7 Symmetry plane [Template] Stores vertices of the symmetry plane to guar-
vertices antee correct creation of symmetry plane boundaries there
in the pro-STAR model. With the mapping method and a
model using the “Create full model” option in the Star
Setup panel, stores vertices of the symmetry plane to guar-
antee proper vertex merging and model connection.
Vset 8 Vertices on pis- [Template] Stores vertices of imported mesh considered a
ton part of the piston at BDC to be translated with the piston


Vset 9 Pressure bound- [Template] Stores vertices of port faces to guarantee cor-
ary vertices rect creation of pressure boundaries there in the pro-STAR
model
Vset 10 Cylinder wall [Template] Used only with the trimming method: stores
vertices the vertices of the cylinder wall which are all at the cylin-
der radius
A.4 Machine Compatibility

es-ice is fully and automatically compatible across platforms.
Thus, a save_es-ice file begun on a DEC-alpha machine
can be resumed, for example, on an SGI machine.
pro-STAR and STAR are now available in big-endian ver-
sions for DEC-alpha machines. As a result, the big-endian
binary byte-order is now the default in es-ice for all plat-
forms. This is shown in the Star Setup panel through the acti-
vated “Big endian” flag. This flag may be deactivated to write
out binary files in little-endian format.

The es-ice User Manual Appendix B
Appendix B Special Features and Capabilities

This appendix documents special features and capabilities of es-ice, most of which are not
introduced in the main chapters when working with the tutorial example.
B.1 Piston Modeling (Mapping Method)

There are five distinct ways to model the piston when meshing with the mapping method.
They are summarized briefly below and explained in more detail further below.
Flat piston: this is the default option; no special steps are required. The piston face is repre-
sented as a planar surface parallel to the xy-plane. It is located based on the following tem-
plate parameters: “Connecting rod length”, “Piston stroke length”, and “Piston Z at TDC”.
Projected piston: in this option the bottom surface of the template is projected to a shell sur-
face in the geometry (Geometry Cset 2). This option is suitable for relatively flat piston sur-
faces that can be represented by a continuous layer of cells and is very easy to implement. The
piston shells must be located at the TDC position.
Shape piston: in this option (used in the tutorial example) cells can be removed from the bot-
tom portion of the template. New cells can be added using the plastering function. The result-
ing surfaces can be mapped and smoothed via edges and patches to conform to a set of piston
shells in the geometry. The treatment of the piston is, therefore, analogous to the treatment of
the cylinder dome. The shape piston must be located at BDC. This is the only piston type that
is located at the BDC position.
Match piston: this option is similar to the arbitrary piston (described below) except that the
externally-generated mesh matches vertex-to-vertex with the template mesh for the cells of
the replaced layers. This piston must be matched to its TDC position.
Arbitrary piston: in this option, a mesh representing the piston bowl is generated externally
and read in. One or more layers of the externally-generated mesh replace the same number of
layers of mesh in the template. Unlike the match piston, there is no correspondence between
the vertices of the replacement layers and those of the replaced layers. The externally-gener-
ated mesh and the mesh of the template meet at an arbitrary sliding interface (ASI). The exter-
nally-generated mesh must be at TDC. A limitation of this method is that the ASI should be
relatively flat. It cannot have a warped surface contour or the matching within STAR-CD may
fail.
B.1.1 Flat Piston

This is the default option. It is implemented when the user takes no special steps to model the
piston by another method. In the current example the mesh at BDC using a flat piston would
appear as below. As mentioned above, it is located based on the template parameters: “Con-
necting rod length”, “Piston stroke length”, and “Piston Z at TDC”.
Version 1.04 page B-1

Appendix B The es-ice User Manual
Figure B-1: Section View of a Flat Piston in a Created Result
B.1.2 Projected Piston

All that is required here is to save shells representing the piston surface at TDC in Geometry
Cset 2. The piston surface must be relatively flat with no areas that approach vertical. Vertical
faces will cause the “Projected piston” method to fail. During the simulation, if valves are not
vertical, the “Projected piston” method will cause a redistribution of the vertices on the piston
surface. This is due to the fact that vertices are generally projected straight down from the ver-
tex layer at the bottom of the lowest valve. As the valves move through their vlift curves, the
vertex distribution at this layer changes, thus changing the distribution at the piston. If this is
not desirable, the user should implement the “Shape piston” option or another piston option.
Figure B-2: Section View of a Projected Piston in a Created Result
page B-2 Version 1.04

B.1.3 Shape Piston

The tutorial example uses the “Shape piston” method. Orig-
inal template cells are removed from the lower portion of
the template. The plaster command may then be used to
introduce some new cells. The purpose is to obtain a rea-
sonable template surface for mapping to shells in the geom-
etry that represent the piston face at its BDC position. The
same mapping tools that we use on the combustion dome
are then used to carry out the mapping of the piston surface.
This is a very flexible method. Its chief benefits are that all
of the internal vertices are positioned by the program (none
are restricted to simple translation) and that very complex
piston geometries can be modeled. Also, it enables all of
the meshing for the piston to be handled directly within es-
ice and it allows penetration of combustion dome features,
such as injectors, into the piston (accomplished with the
discontinuous deletion layer capability).
Note: Before beginning the “Shape piston” procedure, the
combustion dome mapping should be completely finished.
1. Build or import shells that represent the piston sur-
face at BDC as well as a second surface (the dummy target
shells) that will serve as a target for a projection layer of
vertices. This projection layer will consist of a user-speci-
fied key grid plane from the original template. Since this
grid plane represents the surface of a continuous layer of
cells it must be relatively smooth. Therefore, the dummy
target shells must be relatively smooth. In the tutorial
example, notice that the dummy target shells depart from the actual piston shells primarily in
two places: where the piston bowl drops down and along the cylinder wall opposite from the
symmetry plane. The volumes between the actual piston shells and the dummy target shells
will be filled with the shape piston mesh. We need to study these volumes carefully so that we
know what to cut away from the piston mesh and what to retain.
2. Open the Piston panel and select “Shape piston” from the pull-down menu (to change
this later, the “Delete piston” button must be clicked before another selection is allowed from
the pull-down menu). Save the dummy target shells to Geometry Cset 2, specify the “Crank
angle (deg)” and click the “Map piston XYZ” button. This will accomplish the following: the
bottom of the template is mapped to the dummy target shells at the specified crank angle and
this vertex spacing information is saved internally. This procedure is performed so that the
piston mesh will match most closely to the combustion dome mesh when the piston is close to
the dome, thus minimizing mesh distortion near the important TDC crank angle.
3. Click the “Read piston XYZ” parameter to modify the vertices of the “Layers to read”
parameter to the new vertex spacing information saved internally from the “Map piston XYZ”

procedure. The resulting template will have the key grid plane at BDC. A default thin cell
layer spacing is applied unless the “Layer DZ” parameter is activated and a value is specified.
Note: It is useful to specify the template parameter “Bottom small layers” in the Cylinder
parameters panel to be at least one larger than “Layers to read”. This will yield a desirable
layer thickness to the cell layers in the piston mesh. It may also be useful to increase the tem-
plate parameter “BDC cylinder layers”.
3. The piston can now be modeled with the same mapping methods used for the combus-
tion dome: create edges, splines and patches; map the edges; map and project the patches.
B.1.4 Match Piston

This option involves externally building an external piston
that matches seamlessly with the mesh of the template.
Some of the terminology (“Replaced layers” and “Projec-
tion layer”) is identical to that used for the arbitrary piston
described in the next section.
Typically, we would specify “1” for the number of replace-
ment layers. In the externally-generated piston mesh, we
would then be required to include one cell layer with vertex
numbering that is identical to the numbering in the layer to
be replaced. We can actually write this layer out for pro-
STAR as a starting point for our external mesh generation.
This will insure that we have the correct numbering. First,
however, we want to obtain the optimal vertex positioning.
We want the XY vertex positions in the projection layer to
correspond well with the overlying vertices at TDC so that
skewing is minimized. Therefore, we specify “360” for
“Crank angle (deg)” and then click “Map piston XYZ”.
This procedure will map the vertices in the projection layer
to the XY positions that they would have at 360 degrees if
the flat piston or projected piston option were being used.
The projected piston option is enforced if there are target
shells in Geometry Cset 2. Note that it may be useful to
save shells to Geometry Cset 2 that captures some of the
piston shape without violating the requirement that the shell
surface be relatively flat. For instance, if the actual piston
has a deeply recessed bowl, the bowl could be omitted and
replaced with a continuous surface for projection.
The “Read piston XYZ” process reads in the modified XY vertex positions to reflect the TDC
projection, but places the projection layer at its BDC position.
We then gather the cells and vertices of the bottom layer of the template and write them out to
files using the “Write Data” tool. These cell and vertex files can then be imported into pro-
STAR. The user can then extrude from the bottom surface of the imported cells to build a

mesh that accurately captures the piston geometry. The vertices and cells of this mesh can
have any numbers as long as they are greater than those of the original bottom layer. This
mesh can include arbitrary and integral cpmatches. Also, the hexahedral cells of the original
bottom layer can be replaced by prism pairs with the three-sided faces in the plane of the
layer. When the piston mesh is read into es-ice, the cpmatches of these faces to the cylinder
mesh will be generated automatically.
Finally in pro-STAR, translate the entire piston mesh in the z-direction to its TDC position.
Note that during mesh motion, the vertices of the projection layer and below will translate
with the piston motion. The vertices in the replacement layers (above the projection layer) will
be positioned by es-ice. This means that the user need not be concerned with the vertical spac-
ing of the cell layers above the projection layer. es-ice handles this spacing automatically. It is
the vertices of the projection layer and below whose positioning by the user is important.
To implement the match piston option, the user builds an appropriate piston mesh externally
as described above, selects the “Match piston” pull-down option, fills out the text boxes as
required and clicks the “Read piston” button. Note that the “Match file” is for couples internal
to the piston mesh. The vertices of the piston are automatically saved into Template Vset 1.
B.1.5 Arbitrary Piston

In this option, the piston mesh is generated externally and
read into the es-ice session. One or more layers of the exter-
nally-generated mesh replaces the same number of layers of
mesh in the template. The externally-generated mesh and
the mesh of the template meet at an arbitrary sliding inter-
face.
We will begin by illustrating some of the terminology of
the arbitrary piston with a plot from a created result at
TDC. The “Arbitrary Sliding Interface” (ASI), is the inter-
face between the cylinder cells of the template and the
added cells of the piston. “Replaced layers” is the user-
specified number of layers from the externally-generated
piston that will replace an equal number of layers from the
template (typically, a value of “1” is used). The “Projection
layer” is the layer of vertices in the piston cells that corre-
sponds to the bottom layer of the original template.
There are some requirements on the structure of the arbi-
trary piston. The projection layer must be relatively flat so
that it can be used as a target for projection in the z-direc-
tion. Also, there are some requirements regarding vertex
numbering in the arbitrary piston. The user must know the
lowest vertex number in the projection layer (designated
“First vertex”). The vertices in each layer of the replace-
ment layers must be offset by a constant number from the
vertices in the preceding layer (this offset is designated as

“Vertex offset” and can be positive or negative). All vertices not within the replacement layers
must have numbers greater than or less than all vertices in the replacement layers.
Note that an easy way to obtain the proper vertex numbering scheme in the piston cells is first
to create the mesh below the projection layer, second to apply shells to the projection layer
and third to create the replacement layers using the vcextrude command in pro-STAR.
The vertices of the piston should be located in their TDC positions prior to reading them into
es-ice. Note that during mesh motion, the vertices of the projection layer and below will trans-
late according to the piston motion. The vertices in the replacement layers (above the projec-
tion layer) will be positioned by es-ice. This means that the user does not need to be concerned
with the vertical spacing of the cell layers above the projection layer. es-ice handles this spac-
ing automatically. It is the vertices of the projection layer and below whose positioning by the
user is crucial.
To implement the arbitrary piston option, the user simply builds an appropriate piston mesh
externally, selects the “Arbitrary piston” option in the pull-down menu, fills out the text boxes
as required, and clicks the “Read piston” button. Note that the “Match file” is reserved for cp-
matches that are internal to the piston mesh and has nothing to do with the interface between
the template and the piston. If no cpmatches exist within the piston mesh, then this file must
be omitted. The vertices of the piston are automatically saved into Template Vset 1.
If the analysis is to be run in parallel, make sure that the “ASI” option in the Decompose panel
is set to “One” before decomposing the mesh. This will insure that both cell layers on either
side of the ASI are on one processor, which STAR requires. Also, the piston bottom layers
need to be greater by one than the ‘Replaced layers’. For eg. if number of Replaced layers is 2,
your piston bottom layers must be at a minimum of 4.
In the pro-STAR setup, RCON 12 should be set to a value “0.2”. This is the tolerance for the
ASI matching process which STAR executes at every time step.
Arbitrary Sliding Interface
Replacement Layer (of cells)
Projection Layer (of vertices)

Figure B-3: Section View of Arbitrary Piston in a Created Result
B.1.6 Match and Arbitrary Piston with (Distort) Option

In the pull-down menu of the Piston panel, we find that there are two additional options:
“Match piston (distort)” and “Arbitrary piston (distort)”. These are for use in cases where the
combustion dome shape is such that the cells and vertices below the projection layer cannot
move simply by translation. For instance, if there is a gradual curvature to the combustion
dome that extends down toward the cylinder wall, then it may happen that the mesh below the
projection layer will not always extend to the full cylinder radius. As the piston rises, those
cells rise and some of the vertices on the wall may have to move inward to follow the wall. In
turn, some of the interior vertices may need to be redistributed to maintain a well-propor-
tioned mesh.
When either of the distort options is selected, the “Wall vertex file” and “Free vertex file”
parameters become active. We need to supply vertex files for each of these text boxes. The
former is for vertices on the wall (below the projection layer) that need to slide inward along
the wall rather than maintain their position at the cylinder radius during some portion of the
cycle. The latter is for interior vertices that we will allow es-ice to smooth so as to obtain a
better mesh when the wall vertices slide inward.
When the “Read piston” button is clicked, in addition to the standard match or arbitrary piston
operations, these vertex files are saved into Template Vsets 2 and 3. These special vertex sets
are reserved for this purpose and should not be changed by the user.
These piston options work in conjunction with Geometry Cset 1 into which the projection
shells for the cylinder wall vertices should be saved. Also, with this option, the match or arbi-
trary piston mesh should be built to its BDC vertex positions and then translated to TDC
before being read into es-ice. The mesh should not be fitted to the geometry at TDC. This will
be handled by es-ice during the analysis.

B.2 The Discontinuous Deletion Layer (Mapping Method)

The deletion layer normally occurs at some fixed number of layers above the highest bottom
face in the template for meshes built with the mapping method. This deletion layer is gener-
ally a complete cylinder cell layer. If a portion of the template is cut out to model cylinder
head features, interference of these cutouts with the deletion layer could occur. By creating
attachment boundaries under specified edges, we can create distinct regions. In each region,
the deletion layer is a fixed number of cell layers above the highest bottom face. The deletion
layer can thus be made discontinuous, allowing the penetration of a cylinder head component
into the piston or a piston component into the cylinder head.
The attachment boundaries are created by making edges on the surface of the template and
saving them to Eset 11. Eset 11 has been reserved for edges that unmerge their vertices and all
the underlying vertices (in the z-direction) within the template. This unmerging process
occurs during the “Star Setup” operation if the “Add cuts to template” is activated. In the case
illustrated below, a single edge was included in Eset 11 which wrapped around the spark-plug
electrode. The result is a discontinuous deletion layer as indicated by the heavy red lines. In
each region the deletion layer is one cell layer above the highest bottom face.
Deletion layers
Figure B-4: Detail of Created Result at TDC Showing Discontinuous Deletion Layer

B.3 The “Create full model” Option (Mapping Method)

The “Create full model” option available in the Star Setup
panel is used to create a full model from a symmetric-half
model by simple reflection of information. This means that
both intake valves (and both exhaust valves) will follow the
same, symmetric valve lift curve. Note that the parallel
decomposition result will not be optimized since it will also
be symmetric.
To use this option, follow these steps:
1. Create the symmetric model as usual
2. Save the symmetry-plane, template vertices of any
siamese ports to Template Vset 7 labelled “Symmetry plane
vertices”
3. Turn on the “Create full model” toggle option in the
Star Setup panel and click the “Star setup” button
4. Proceed as usual with the pro-STAR setup

B.4 Static Meshing (Mapping Method)

es-ice can generate a mesh for steady-state port analyses if the
mapping method is used for meshing. Once the template genera-
tion and mapping process is completed, the “Static” button in
the Star Setup panel can be clicked to open the Static grid panel,
which will automatically be customized to the number of valves
existing in the user’s model. The default panel shown is from
the tutorial example and thus it can be seen that the Static grid
panel contains parameters for the lifts of only valves 1 and 2.
Similar to the template parameters, an entry of 0 does not neces-
sarily denote 0 but rather a default value for that particular
parameter. Most of these defaults are obtained from analogous
template parameters previously defined. An entry of 0, how-
ever, for a lift of a valve denotes a closed valve. Closed valve(s)
will be excluded from the generated static mesh.
The following table documents the Static grid panel:

Case name Casename to be used for created files
Make/Read Static Buttons to make/read the static mesh
Stop Button to stop the child process
Load/Read/Write Buttons to load/read/write the parame-
ters of the panel
Cylinder bottom Z Z-coordinate, in the global cartesian coordinate system, of the bottom
of the static grid (usually a negative value)
Small layers Number of small, thin cell layers below the lowest valve
below valves
Cell layers [Above the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers above the “Flat Layer”
Growth layers/ [Above the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers (“Growth layers”) and
Maximum growth largest ratio used (“Maximum growth”) through which the static grid
will transition from “Small layers below valves” to the larger cell lay-
ers near the “Flat Layer”
Length [Below the Flat Layer] Distance from the “Cylinder bottom Z” to the
“Flat Layer” (in model units)
Constant layers [Below the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers below the “Flat Layer”
to have a constant height of the layer just above the “Flat Layer”

Growth layers/ [Below the Flat Layer] Number of cell layers (“Growth layers”) and
Growth ratio used (“Growth”) through which the static grid will transition
from “Constant layers” to the larger cell layers near the “Cylinder bot-
tom Z”
Lift of Valve n Valve lift for valve n (in model units). Note that a value of 0 will
denote a closed valve, which are excluded from the static mesh.
Lift of Valve n
Small layers below valves
Growth
layers
Cell layers
Above the Flat Layer FLAT

Below the Flat Layer LAYER
Constant layers
Growth layers
Length
Cylinder bottom Z
Figure B-5: Visual Depiction of Parameters from Static grid Panel
To generate the static mesh, the user adjusts the various parameters, provides a case name and
clicks the “Make Static” button. pro-STAR cell (.cel), vertex (.vrt), boundary (.bnd), couples

(.cpl), input (.inp) and panel (.PNL) files are created. In pro-STAR, the panel can be opened
and used to import the mesh, similar to the transient analysis.
The static mesh can also be read into es-ice using the “Read Static” button. This is similar to
reading in a created result and so the user should not save the save_es-ice file afterwards.
The parameters used are automatically stored internally and can be saved within the
save_es-ice file by saving the save_es-ice file after creating the static mesh. They
can be loaded with the “Load” button. If the user wishes to have parameters saved to an exter-
nal file (<casename>.param), the “Write” button can be clicked and the file can be read
with the “Read” button.
Below is an example of a static mesh generated using the tutorial example and the parameters
used to create it:
Figure B-6: Static Mesh Using Tutorial Example

B.5 Axisymmetric Sector Meshing

Axisymmetric meshes for a sector corresponding to one injector hole or for the full 360-
degrees can be created with es-ice as well as full 360-degree meshes with non-axisymmetric
features on the dome and/or piston. A two-dimensional profile of the piston is defined by a
spline. The piston geometry can be axisymmetric or have non-axisymmetric features, such as
valve pockets. The dome can be flat at z=0 or also have non-axisymmetric features, such as
valve seats. A variation of the trimming method will be used to create the meshes.
A spline must first be created that defines the two-dimensional profile of the piston. This
spline should represent the two-dimensional profile of the axisymmetric piston (for non-axi-
symmetric pistons it should ignore the non-axisymmetric features) and must be created with
the following restrictions:
1. The spline should be created with all the knots at theta=0 (positive x-axis) in the global
cylindrical coordinate system (csys 2), starting at the center (r=0) and ending at the radius
2. The spline should be at the BDC piston position
The spline,radshell and spline,shift commands may be useful to create and move, respec-
tively, these splines. Check the spline since the spline,radshell command is not guaranteed to
work for all piston shapes and surface discretizations.
The “Piston stroke length” parameter in the Cylinder parameters panel and the parameters of the
Events parameters panel will be used so they should also be modified.

Clicking on the “Sector” button in the Create Template panel will open the Sector panel. In the
upper-left corner of the panel, there are 4 options from which to choose the type of the sector
mesh. The “Trimmed, no spray” option will use a uniform 2D custom mesh (without a spray
region) and trim it using $STARDIR/bin/ammbatch to create the axisymmetric mesh (the
bamm,exec command can be used to use a different ammbatch from a different path. The
“Trimmed, spray” option will use a 2D custom mesh with a spray region and also trim it to
create the axisymmetric mesh. The mesh in this spray region will be fixed at all times and can
be modified such that it is aligned with the spray. The “Block A, spray” option will use a 2D
mesh with a spray region to create the axisymmetric mesh. This 2D mesh is created by picking
knots of the piston spline and is not trimmed. The “Block B, spray” option is similar to the
previously mentioned option but uses a different block structure for the 2D mesh which works
well for piston bowls with narrow throats. It may be helpful to click the “Create TDC spline”
button to look at how the fixed spray mesh will interact with the piston bowl at TDC.
Below are examples of each of the 2D sector mesh types, using the same spline:
Trimmed, no spray Trimmed, spray
bowl edge
bowl jog
bowl edge
bowl
bowl corner bottom
Block A, spray Block B, spray

The following table documents the parameters in the Sector panel:
Piston spline ID ID number of the spline that defines the two-dimensional profile of
the axisymmetric piston
Create TDC spline Button to create spline (using the ID number specified to the right) at
TDC from the existing spline at BDC
Azimuthal cone Angle of the spray cone in the XY-plane (in degrees)
angle
Number of holes Number of holes of the injector
Azimuthal cells Number of cells in the azimuthal direction for the three azimuthal
regions starting at the outer: outer, spray and outer
Azimuthal angle Angle of the spray axis of the first hole in the XY-plane (in degrees)
Compression ratio Compression ratio of the model - if it is greater than 1.0, the Z-coor-
dinate of the axis of the crankshaft will be changed to obtain the
specified compression ratio

Minimum TDC Minimum number of cell layers at TDC
layers
Extrusion ratio Ratio of the piston extrusion layer thickness to the thickness of the
neighboring cells (a value of “0” will use the default “0.5” value
while a value of “-1” will not create an extrusion layer)
Dome Z, cells Z-coordinate and number of cells to add to the template above z=0 to
trim non-axisymmetric dome features
Source R, Z, diam- R- and z-coordinates of the center of the spray and the spray’s diam-
eter eter - note that the z-coordinate of the top is 0 (in model units)
Spray extent Radial extent of the spray region (in model units)
Axis angle Angle that the spray axis is below the horizontal (in degrees)
Planar cone angle Angle of the spray cone in the XZ-plane (in degrees)
Radial cells Number of cells in the radial direction for the three radial regions
starting at the center: nozzle, spray and outer
Radial block cells For “Block” meshes: the number of cells in the radial direction for
the first two sub-regions of the outer region
Protrusion cells For “Block B, spray” meshes: the number of cells in the radial direc-
tion for the bowl protrusion
Axial cells Number of cells in the axial direction for the three axial regions start-
ing at the bottom: bottom, spray and top
Axial block cells For “Block A, spray” meshes: the number of cells in the axial direc-
tion for the second sub-region of the bottom region (the first sub-
region has the same number of cells as the second radial sub-region).
For “Block B, spray” meshes: the number of cells in the axial direc-
tion for the first three sub-regions of the bottom region.
Bowl knots Spline knot numbers for the bowl bottom, bowl corner, bowl jog and
bowl edge
Piston extrusion Length to be extruded from the bottom of the piston outside of the
length bowl (the piston bowl will always be axisymmetric) for “Block A,
spray” and “Block B, spray” types to trim non-axisymmetric piston
features

nozzle
radial
region
outer radial region spray radial region
top axial region height (spray)
planar cone angle

spray axial region axis angle height (bottom)
bottom axial region
outer azimuthal region
azimuthal cone angle

spray azimuthal region
azimuthal angle
outer azimuthal region

B.5.1 Axisymmetric Sector and Axisymmetric Full 360-Degree Meshing

An axisymmetric mesh assumes that the dome is flat at z=0 and the axisymmetric piston
geometry is defined by the piston spline. This mesh can be created for a sector corresponding
to one injector hole or for the full 360-degrees.
With the piston spline defined and the appropriate parameters modified in the Cylinder parame-
ters and Events parameters panels, click the “Sector” button in the Create Template panel to
open the Sector panel. Here is the recommended order of steps to follow:
1. Choose the type of axisymmetric mesh to be created from the options in the upper-left
corner of the panel
2a. For “Trimmed” meshes: click the “Create 2D” button
2b. For “Block” meshes: click the “Pick knots” button, follow the text instructions on the
bottom of the Geometry window to pick the appropriate spline knots and then click the
“Create 2D” button
3. Click the “Adjust” button and adjust the 2D mesh using the adjustment points (similar
to creating the 2D base template with the “Sections” method). Optionally, click the “Edit”
button, edit the parameters directly and click the “Create 2D” button to see the result).
4. Edit the parameters that affect the third dimension (azimuthal or theta direction) and
other parameters
5. Click the “Trim” button and when that is finished, click the “Get 2D” button to look at
the 2D mesh, the “Get sector” button to look at the sector mesh and/or the “Get full” button to
look at the full 360-degree mesh
6. Modify the “Extrusion ratio” parameter for the piston extrusion layer, toggle the
“Include injector cells” button for all mesh types except “Trimmed, no spray” (activate or
deactivate to include or exclude, respectively, the injector region cells with the other fluid
cells) and toggle the “Output sector” button (activate for a sector mesh corresponding to one
injector hole or deactivate for a full 360-degree mesh)
7. Click the “Create” button to create the files similar to the “Star Setup” procedure
Optionally, the parameters of the Sector panel can be written out to a default filename of sec-
tor.ice by clicking the “Write” button.
From this point, results can be created and checked and the model can be setup in pro-STAR
as usual.
B.5.2 Non-Axisymmetric Full 360-Degree Meshing

A non-axisymmetric mesh assumes that the cylinder mesh is axisymmetric but includes non-
axisymmetric features of the dome and/or piston. This is accomplished by specifying extra
cells above the default flat dome at z=0 and/or below the piston outside of the bowl (the piston
bowl is always assumed to be axisymmetric) so that the non-axisymmetric features can be
trimmed. A non-axisymmetric sector mesh is not available so the mesh will be created for the
full 360-degrees. Unlike the axisymmetric meshes described in the previous section, these

types of meshes will use the Sector panel to only create the template. As a result, trimming and
fixing of the mesh with the Trim panel and “Star Setup” with the Star Setup panel will be neces-
sary.
With the piston spline defined and the appropriate parameters modified in the Cylinder parame-
ters and Events parameters panels, click the “Sector” button in the Create Template panel to
open the Sector panel. Here is the recommended order of steps to follow:
1. Choose the type of non-axisymmetric mesh to be created from the options in the
upper-left corner of the panel and deactivate the “Axisymmetric” button at the bottom of the
panel
2a. For “Trimmed” meshes: click the “Create 2D” button
2b. For “Block” meshes: click the “Pick knots” button, follow the text instructions on the
bottom of the Geometry window to pick the appropriate spline knots and then click the
“Create 2D” button
3. Click the “Adjust” button and adjust the 2D mesh using the adjustment points (similar
to creating the 2D base template with the “Sections” method). Optionally, click the “Edit”
button, edit the parameters directly and click the “Create 2D” button to see the result).
4. Edit the parameters that affect the third dimension (azimuthal or theta direction) and
other parameters
5. Modify the “Extrusion ratio” parameter for the piston extrusion layer
6. For “Block” meshes with non-axisymmetric piston features, enter a length for the
“Piston extrusion length” parameter
7. Click the “Make Template” button and when that is finished, click the “Read Tem-
plate” button to look at the 3D template
Optionally, the parameters of the Sector panel can also be written out to a default filename of
sector.ice by clicking the “Write” button.
From this point, the procedure is the same as for creating a mesh with the trimming method.
The Sector panel is no longer used and the modeling procedure should continue: modify spe-
cial Geometry Csets, create splines on geometry features, trim and fix the mesh with the Trim
panel, execute the “Star Setup” procedure and continue as usual.

B.6 Multi-Cylinder Meshing

Multi-cylinder meshing uses the mesh created with the mapped or trimmed method and cre-
ates the other cylinders during the “Star Setup” procedure using the information in the Multiple
cylinders panel. The currently modeled cylinder using coordinate system ID 1 is considered to
be “Cylinder 1”. Other cylinders are added by defining coordinate systems based on that of
Cylinder 1 (or global coordinate system 1) and also the phase (or crank angle) difference. The
connected ports are specified, “Star Setup” is executed and the model is setup in pro-STAR
as usual.
Activate the “Multiple cylinders” button in the Star Setup panel to open the Multiple cylinders
panel and do the following:
1. Define new local coordinate systems with respect to coordinate system 1 to add new
cylinders, also specifying a phase (or crank angle) difference between them and Cylinder 1
2. Specify the port connectivities
The “Star Setup” procedure can then be executed and results can be created to check the mesh.
Continue as usual by setting up the model in pro-STAR.
Note that the Template window will not show the multiple cylinders. To see them in es-ice, a
result using the “Multiple cylinders” button of the Create Result panel must be created and
read. The mesh imported into pro-STAR will be the complete multiple-cylinder model. The
manifold can then be added into pro-STAR and cpmatched. However, STAR-CD versions

after v3.150A should be used if meshes are added into pro-STAR for multiple-cylinder mod-
els.
The following table documents the parameters in the Multiple cylinders panel:
Angle offset The crank angle offset for a cylinder to replace or add after the
selected cylinder (a positive or negative value represents an offset
ahead of or behind, respectively, Cylinder 1)
Coordinate system The ID number of the coordinate system to create
Delta Y The global y-coordinate (y0) of the cylinder or the from Cylinder 1
Z Rotation The rotation of the cylinder about its local z-axis (rotxy)
Z Center The global z-coordinate (z0) of the crankshaft from which the “Y
Rotation” parameter will be applied
Y Rotation The rotation of the cylinder in the global xz-plane (rotzx) using the
“Z Center” parameter as the rotation point
Connected ports A section to specify which ports are connected to others

Cylinder 1
Port 3 Port 2
Port 4 Port 1
Delta Y
Cylinder 2
Z Rotation
Top View
Side View
Ports 1 + 4
Ports 2 + 3
Y Rotation
Cylinder 2 Cylinder 1
Angle offset at 90 degrees at TDC
Z Center
BTDC
Figure B-7: 2 Cylinders of a Multi-Cylinder Example

B.7 Special Option Flags

Flags can be set to control various aspects of es-ice. The available flags can be listed in the
Child Output window by clicking on the “List” or “List All” buttons in the Star Setup panel.
They can be applied by entering them into the text area marked “Extra parameters” before
performing the star setup process, unless stated otherwise.
Most models should use the default settings and should not require the use of special flags.
You should consult with an es-ice support engineer for proper use of these flags. A few of the
commonly used special option flags are listed and described below according to category.
B.7.1 Possibly Useful Flags for Mapped Meshes

-unwarp-maximum-90 (default) or -unwarp-maximum-180
Use the new definition of face warpage which has a maximum of 90 degrees or use the
old definition which has a maximum of 180 degrees. Suggested to -unwarp-maximum-
180 in combination with the suggested values for the -unwarp= flag described below.
-unwarp=cutoff_angle,target_angle,layers,iterations,relaxation
Unwarps cylinder cells by gathering cells with a face warped more than cutoff_angle
degrees, growing them layers times, moving the vertices that are on faces warped more than
target_angle degrees, iterating iterations times and relaxing the vertex movement by relax-
ation. Suggested to use 1 for layers, 50 for iterations and .02 for relaxation in combination
with the -unwarp-maximum-180 flag described above.
B.7.2 Miscellaneous Flags

-version
Shows the major and minor versions of the program and stops. Can be used with the
es-ice or Ice executable in unix.
-machine-id
Shows the machine ID needed for a node-locked lockfile license and stops. Can be
used with the es-ice or Ice executable in unix.


The es-ice User Manual Appendix C
Appendix C Advanced Modeling Issues

This appendix provides advanced modeling issues that may or may not have been introduced
in the tutorial example.
C.1 Before Starting es-ice

Before getting started with es-ice, there are some initial steps that must be taken with external
software. There are also additional, optional steps that are recommended to make the geome-
try easier to work with once it is imported into es-ice.
Using external software, the geometry must be defined by creating surfaces for the combus-
tion dome, piston crown, ports/arms and valves. The two-dimensional surfaces should be dis-
cretized into quadrilaterals and/or triangles. It is preferred to have the piston in the TDC
position and the valves in their closed positions. It is also preferred to have the units of the
geometry in millimeters.
To use the trimming method to create the template, the surface should be closed. It may be
helpful to import the surface into pro-STAR with auto mesh generation and use its tools to
fix, close and check the surface. To use the mapping method to create the template, the surface
does not have to be completely closed but should not have gaps.
The geometry should be oriented so that the piston motion is along the z-axis with the com-
pression stroke moving the piston in the positive z-direction. The center of the cylinder should
be at (x,y) equal to (0,0) and the firedeck is recommended to be at z equal to 0. Valve number
1 is considered to be in the first quadrant (+x,+y), valve number 2 is considered to be in the
second quadrant (-x,+y) for four-valve cylinders (or the next valve in the counterclockwise
direction when viewing the cylinder from above) and so forth. The engine axis is preferred to
be oriented along the y-axis, so that generally the arms extend from the valves in the ±x direc-
tions. It is important to note that if siamesed arms are to be modeled in es-ice (as opposed to
being meshed externally and then imported), only valves 1/4 and valves 2/3 can be paired.
Also, when modeling a symmetric 4-valve model, only valves 1 and 2 will have meaning so
the geometry to be modeled should in the first and second quadrants (±x,+y).
Although not required, it is recommended to separate different sections of the model into dif-
ferent cell types. This allows quick and easy isolation and manipulation of certain parts of the
geometry. Usually the combustion dome, piston crown, cylinder liner/wall, ports/arms and
valves are separated in this way.
es-ice can read pro-STAR with auto mesh generation database files (.dbs) as well as cell
(.cel) and vertex (.vrt) files in binary and coded format. The geometry shells can there-
fore be written to any of the mentioned files.
Finally, the valve lift files need be generated. The valve lift files should be named
vlift0n.dat where n is the integer number of the valve according to the convention
described previously. The data should be in the form of absolute crank angle versus lift in the
units of the geometry (preferably in millimeters). es-ice will interpolate between the data
points and two lift points of 0 value are required: one just before valve opening and another
just after valve closing. es-ice will also automatically apply the appropriate offsets to the
crank angle data when necessary so that multiple cycles are automatically handled.
Version 1.02 page C-1

Appendix C The es-ice User Manual
C.2 Key Point Specification for Valves without Chamfer

For valves that do not have a chamfer, we still need to specify the same key points that are
specified for the valve with chamfer. The figure below shows how the first four points should
be distributed. Note that in the case without chamfer, the radial spacing between p1 and p2
should have the desired dimension for a cell in the radial direction.
Note also that if the valve is without a chamfer, then the pop-up selection for “Edge triangle”
must be set to “No”, whereas in the case of a chamfered valve the user has the choice of “Yes”
or “No”. “Yes” indicates that the chamfered region will be represented by a a band of triangu-
lar prisms.
p4 p4
p3 p3
p2
p1 p2
p1
Valve With Chamfer Valve Without Chamfer
Figure C-1: Placement of Key Points on Valves With and Without Chamfer
page C-2 Version 1.02

C.3 Creating a Custom Mesh for Ports in pro-STAR with auto mesh generation
The user is strongly recommended to use a custom mesh to trim the ports in pro-STAR with
auto mesh generation. It is desired to have a custom mesh that incorporates both a polar
mesh (for the region above the valves) and a cartesian mesh (for the arms).
This section will outline recommended steps for building such a custom mesh with using the
databases from the trimmed method approach.
1) Open the mapped model save_es-ice file.
2) Modify the geometry csets as given in Section 3.1 of this user manual
3) Change the Valve style as ‘Trimmed’ from the ‘Valve (id) Parameters’ panel for the ports
that need to be trimmed
4) Change the ‘Template to Trim’ paameter to ‘Yes’ from the ‘Trim parameters’ panel.
5) Click on ‘Make Template’ in the ‘Create Template’ panel.

6) Execute the command “Trim, dbase, cull, no” in the es-ice command window. This will
keep all temporary databases. We are interested mainly in the custom meshes which will be
built for the ports.
7) Trim the mesh by hitting the ‘Cut’ button in the Trim Panel. The trimming process will take
a while.
8) After es-ice finishes cutting the template, you will see a temporary directory starting with
‘x’ (For eg xes-igxLCyc) in the main working directory. There will be a database by the name
‘child_ice.dbs’ in the directory.
9) Open the database using the command “Dbase, open, xes-igxLCyc/child_ice.dbs, exists”.
The dbase listing (dbase, list) will show the various database entries. We are interested in
databases 117, 217 upto n17 where ‘n’ is the valve id.
10) Open the database for port 2 for example, using the command “Dbase, get, 217”. Now
save it in a separate database for eg ‘port2.dbs’ with database id 12.
Dbase, open, port2.dbs
Dbase, put, 12
11) You may import the surface database for the respective port into dbase id 1 of this data-
base and proceed with the trimming in pro-STAR with automatic meshing.

C.4 Reflecting Symmetric Information (Mapping Method)

When modeling a 4-valve cylinder using the mapping method, symmetric information may be
reflected to save time and further ensure symmetry. The reflecting of splines will be discussed
and other topics will be added in future versions of the manual, such as reflecting sections for
2D templates.
There is a reflecting option with the spline command but a new coordinate system must be
created. To reflect splines across the xz-plane, first execute the following command to create a
local cartesian coordinate system with ID 5 that is simply rotated from the global cartesian
coordinate system, csys 1:
local,5,cartesian,0,0,0,0,90,0
Then use coordinate system ID 5 defined above to reflect certain splines across the xz-plane
using one of the following commands:
spline,<old_id>,to,<new_id>,reflect,<csys>
spline,<new_id>,from,<old_id>,reflect,<csys>
Note that <old_id> is the existing spline ID number to be reflected, <new_id> will be the ID
number of the new reflected spline and <csys> is the coordinate system to use, which should
be csys 5 defined above.

C.5 Adding a ‘Full Extrusion Layer’ to the model (Trimming Method)

Optionally, an extrusion layer can be added to the full model for trimmed meshes. This fea-
ture, however, is not fully tested and thus it is not fully supported. As a result, the tutorial
example model does not include the full extrusion layer.
To add an extrusion layer to the full model, specify the “Extrusion” parameter at the bottom of
the Trim panel for the extrusion thickness. Note that the ‘piston only’ button should NOT be
checked. The extrusion layer will not be immediately visible, even after the trimmed template
is assembled because it is added during the “Star Setup” procedure described later. It can be
seen in a created result and in the mesh that is imported into pro-STAR.
Figure C-2: Result: Section plots showing extrusion layer on the valve, dome, and piston

C.6 Modification Topics

This section describes the process of making some common modifications to existing models.
C.6.1 Changing Engine Speed (RPM)

To change the engine speed or rpm of the engine, resume the es-ice model and go to the Star
Setup panel. Make sure that the “Engine RPM” parameter is activated and modify the value.
Then click “Star setup” to create new files with the modified “Engine RPM”.
In pro-STAR, the mesh has not changed but the events have. Therefore, the events file will
have to be recreated. Resume the pro-STAR model and make sure that the following files are
in the current working directory: GRID_MOVE.NULL and MAKE_EV.BAT. Make sure that
the maximum number of events specified in the param.prp file still applies with the new
engine speed. Click the “Events” button from the es-ice.PNL panel to create the new
events file (<casename>.evn). Proceed as usual by writing a new geometry and problem
files and saving the model before quitting.
The new events information is not only in the <casename>.evn file but also in
save_ice_after_map. Therefore, make sure to use the new save_ice_after_map
file when running the analysis.
C.6.2 Changing Starting and/or Stopping Crank Angles

To change the starting and/or stopping crank angles of the analysis, resume the es-ice model
and go to the Star Setup panel. Make sure that the “Start (deg)” or “Stop (deg)” parameters are
activated and modify the values. Then click “Star setup” to create new files with the modified
analysis range.
starting and/or stopping crank angles. Click the “Events” button from the es-ice.PNL
panel to create the new events file (<casename>.evn). Proceed as usual by writing a new
geometry and problem files and saving the model before quitting.
Note that the stopping crank angle specified during “Star setup” is a maximum. Therefore, it
is not necessary to change the stopping crank angle if the new stopping crank angle is earlier
than the current one.

C.6.3
C.6.4 Changing Valve Lift Curves

To change the valve lift curves, resume the es-ice model and go to the Star Setup panel. Make
sure that the new valve lift curve files are in the current working directory. Then click “Star
setup” to create new files with the new valve lift curves.
valve lift curves. Click the “Events” button from the es-ice.PNL panel to create the new
events file (<casename>.evn). Proceed as usual by writing a new geometry and problem
files and saving the model before quitting.

The es-ice User Manual Appendix D
Appendix D Related Files on adapco’s Ftp Site

To connect to adapco’s ftp site, follow these steps:
o ftp to “ftp.adapco.com”
o login as “anonymous”
o use your complete email address as the password
o change directory to “/pub/outgoing/Software.dir/es-ice/Version1.04”
Note: The ftp site is protected so you will not be able to list the contents of its directories.
The “es-ice” directory, however, and everything below it are able to be listed.
From here, there are several directories and files of interest:

The Documents directory contains documentation in .pdf format such as the es-ice manual.
The Examples directory contains example files that have been “tar”-ed and “gzip”-ed such
as the tutorial example from the es-ice manual (using the mapping method and the trimming
method).
The Error.report text file lists the bugs that have been fixed for this version of es-ice and
is arranged chronologically by date.
The executables are contained in additional directories divided by operating systems and lev-
els. Inside each of these directories are the executables of es-ice and Ice. There is an
“x.yy.zzz” extension with the es-ice and Ice executables that specifies the 1-digit
major version number, 2-digit minor version number and 3-digit patch number, respectively.
The provided user panel, training.pnl, discussed in the beginning of this manual is also
available in the “/pub/outgoing/Software.dir/es-ice/tools” directory of the adapco ftp site.
To download the necessary executables:

o change directory to the appropriate OS/level subdirectory under “/pub/outgoing/Soft-
ware/es-ice/Version1.04”
o type “bina” to transfer in binary mode
o “get” the appropriate version of the executables
o In unix/Linux, “gunzip” (or “gzip -d”) and “tar xvf” to extract the executables
Version 1.04 page D-1

Appendix D The es-ice User Manual
To transfer files to/from the adapco ftp site:

o ftp to “ftp.adapco.com”
o login as “anonymous”
o use your email address as the password
o change directory to “/pub/incoming” if you are transferring files to adapco or change
directory to “/pub/outgoing” if you are transferring files from adapco
o type “bina” to transfer in binary mode
o “put” or “get” the appropriate file(s)
Note: The ftp site is protected so you will NOT be able to list the contents of the “/pub/
incoming” and “/pub/outgoing” directories.
page D-2 Version 1.04

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The es-ice User Manual

March 18, 2005

Expert System for Internal Combustion Engines

The es-ice User Manual

The es-ice User Manual

Copyright © 1996-2005 adapco - All Rights Reserved.

Release Notes: es-ice Version 1.04

Added/modified features and functionality in es-ice in 1.04.000 (since 1.02.001)

4.3 Creating the 3D Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17

A.1.4 Plotting to a File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-5

B.7.2 Miscellaneous Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-23

Figure 1-1: The es-ice Environment

Version 1.04 page 1-1

1.2 Organization of the Manual

1.3 The es-ice Environment

page 1-2 Version 1.04

Version 1.04 page 1-3

1.4 Basic es-ice Functionality

page 1-4 Version 1.04

Version 1.04 page 1-5

1.5 Provided User Panel

page 1-6 Version 1.04

1.6 The General Methodology

align and orient cylinder

create valve lift curves

Version 1.04 page 1-7

Define Local Valve Coordinate Systems

Modify Geometry Csets Create Stub Surface (if necessary)

Create 2D Base Template

Create Edges and Splines

Map the Template

Assemble the Template

Create/Read/Check Mesh Results at Various Crank Angles

page 1-8 Version 1.04

Version 1.04 page 1-9

1.7 Before Starting es-ice

page 1-10 Version 1.04

Version 1.04 page 1-11

1.8 Introduction to the Tutorial Example

page 1-12 Version 1.04

Version 1.04 page 1-13

page 1-14 Version 1.04

Chapter 2 Geometry Import and Valve Work

The tutorial example files used in this chapter are:

2.1 Importing the Geometry Surface

Version 1.04 page 2-1

Figure 2-1: Geometry: Imported Geometry Surface

2.2 Defining a Local Coordinate System for a Valve

page 2-2 Version 1.04

Figure 2-2: Geometry: Defining Local Coordinate System 11 for Valve 1

Version 1.04 page 2-3

2.3 Creating and Checking a Valve Profile

Figure 2-3: Geometry: 6 Key Points to Create Valve Profile

page 2-4 Version 1.04

Figure 2-4: Geometry: Visually Checking Valve Profile with Spline

After visually checking the valve profile spline, it should

2.4 Using the Provided Panel for Valve Work

Version 1.04 page 2-5

2.5 Saving the Model

page 2-6 Version 1.04

Chapter 3 Meshing with the Trimming Method

3.1 Modifying Special Cell Sets of the Geometry

Version 1.04 page 3-1