INTRODUCTION TO
GRID GENERATION
Computational Aerodynamics
CFD SIMULATION
Geometry
creation
Pre Topology
Processing Generation
Mesh
Generation
Purpose
• For both CFD (fluid) and FEA (solid) modelling, the software
performs the computations at a range of discrete locations within
the domain.
• The purpose of meshing is to decompose the solution domain into
an appropriate number of locations for an accurate result.
Consideration
• Detail:
– How much geometric detail is relevant to the simulation physics.
– Including unnecessary detail can greatly increase the effort required for
the simulation.
• Refinement
– Where in the domain are the most complex stress/flow gradients? These
areas will require higher densities of mesh elements.
• Efficiency
– Greater numbers of elements require more compute resource (memory /
processing time). Balance the fidelity of the simulation with available
resources.
Consideration
• Example 1 (Internal Flow)
Coarse Mesh Near The
Wall
Very smooth mesh near the
wall to capture Boundary Layer
• Simple Geometry but complex flow (high gradient) need
very smooth mesh
Consideration
• Example 2 (Body Wing Blended Aircraft)
Flat Surface Complex Geometry at LE (high
TE ?? gradient on x direction
Consideration
Coarse Mesh at Upper
Surface
Smooth Mesh at
LE
Consideration
Smooth Mesh at TE to capture
separation
Smooth Mesh at Tip to
capture complex flow
(vortex)
Consideration
• Complex flow need very smooth mesh; Wing Tip, Trailing
Edge (Not necessary complex geometry)
• Complex Geometry need very smooth mesh; Leading
Edge Wing.
Mesh Type
• The basic building-blocks for a 3D mesh are:
Tetrahedrons Hexahedrons Pyramids (where tet. Prisms (formed when a
(unstructured) (usually structured) and hex. cells meet) tet mesh is extruded)
Mesh Type
• Tet Mesh
1) Can be generated quickly, automatically, and for
complicated geometry
2) Isotropic refinement – in order to capture gradients in one
direction, mesh is refined in all three directions – cell
counts rise rapidly
Mesh Type
• 3) Inflation layer helps with refinement normal to the wall,
Mesh Type
• Hex Mesh
– Fewer elements required to resolve physics for most CFD
applications
• This hexahedral mesh, which provides the same
resolution of flow physics, has LESS than half the
amount of nodes as the tet-mesh)
Mesh Quality
– In areas of high geometric complexity mesh elements can become distorted. Poor
quality elements can lead to poor quality results or, in some cases, no results at all!
– There are a number of methods for measuring mesh element quality (mesh
metrics*). For example, one important metric is the element ‘Skewness’. Skewness
is a measure of the relative distortion of an element compared to its ideal shape
and is scaled from
• 0 (Excellent) to 1 (Unacceptable).
0-0.25 0.25-0.50 0.50-0.80 0.80-0.95 0.95-0.98 0.98-1.00
Excellent very good good acceptable bad Unacceptable
Mesh Method
• Unstructured
• Generate Mesh (Grid) automatically using mesh algorithm (e.g
Octree, Delaunay, Advancing Front)
• Applicable for complex geometry
• Need more node and element compare to Structured.
• Need very large memory
• Quality Issue
• Mesh Type : Tet, Tri, Quad, Prism, Pyra
• Structured
• Mesh quality better than unstructured
• Very difficult for complex geometry
• Mesh Type : Hexa
INTRO TO
UNSTRUCTERED MESH
Bottom-Up Approach
• Create Geometry
• Repair Geometry if necessary
• Shell Mesh (Patch Dependent or Patch Independent)
• Volume Mesh (Delauney or Octree)
GEOMETRY
Patch
Independent
Patch
Dependent
Patch
Independent
Patch
Dependent
Building Topology – Determine Connectivity
• Geometry -> Repair Geometry -> Build Diagnostic Topology
• To diagnose potential geometry problems
• Shows potential leakage (tetra octree)
• Shows where surface mesh may not be connected
• Patch dependent surface mesher requires build topology
• Tolerance
• Specifies allowable gap between surfaces
• Size should be set reasonably to ignore small gaps, but not allow
leakage (tetra octree) or remove important features
• Connectivity is set up between surface edges that meet within the
tolerance
• Filtering should be off when using to determine connectivity
Edge 1
Edge 2
Tolerance
Building Topology – Determine
Connectivity
Color coding
Topology curves are color coded to indicate their surface
connection status
green = unconnected, yellow = single, red = double, blue = multiple,
Grey = dormant (filtered out)
Turn color coding off on in Model tree > Geometry > Curves > Color
by count
Red curves indicate two surfaces meet within the tolerance, This is
what you want for a solid model.
Yellow curves will usually indicate some repair is required
Before
After
SHELL MESH
Shell Meshing Method
• Patch Dependent
– Based on loops of curves surrounding patches
– Best for capturing surface details and creating quad dominant
mesh with good quality
– Repair Dirty geometry is necessary
– Fast
• Patch Independent
– Robust octree algorithm
– Good for dirty geometry, ignoring small features, gaps, holes
– Slow
Shell Meshing
• Create Geometry
• Global Mesh Set Up
Mesh Type Mesh Method
Shell Meshing
• Mesh Size Setup
OR
Shell Meshing
• Compute Mesh
VOLUME MESH
Volume Mesh Method
• Quick Delaunay
• The Quick (Delaunay) option will generate a tetra mesh using a
bottom-up meshing approach (Delaunay Tetra algorithm).
• Require an existing surface mesh.
• Volume mesh will then be generated from this surface mesh.
• Very Fast
• Robust (Octree)
• The Robust (Octree) option will generate a tetra mesh using a top-
down meshing approach
• An Octree mesher does not require an existing surface mesh
because one is created by the Octree process
• Slow
Delaunay
Octree
Volume Mesh
• Surface Mesh (For Delaunay Method)
• Global Mesh Set Up
Mesh
Mesh Type
Method
Volume Mesh
• Compute Volume Mesh
Volume Name
Type Here
Volume Mesh
• Use Cut Plane to See Volume Mesh
RIGHT CLICK
Volume Mesh
Volume Mesh
• Mesh Quality
Non Negative Quality
1: Good
0 : Bad
Good Distribution
Volume Mesh
• Volume Quality
Non Negative
Volume
Volume Mesh
• Mesh Output
File Name
