ANSYS 14.

0 Geometry
and Meshing Update
2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 14,
2011
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Dr Mike Marchant
Sub-Program Director - Fluids
Based on the Workbench Platform, advances in:
ANSYS 14.0 Geometry
ANSYS 14.0 Meshing
Assembly Meshing - In Depth Review
Outline
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ANSYS 14.0 Geometry
Advances
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Focus on enhancing your productivity through new
features, increased flexibility, efficiency and usability
ANSYS DesignModeler
Core modeling improvements
Application-specific modeling
ANSYS SpaceClaim Direct Modeler
Improved Workbench integration
ANSYS 14.0 Geometry Advances
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Improved Workbench integration
Enhanced Model Preparation
Interoperability
Support for new CAD releases
New CAD file readers
Selection tolerance
Tolerance is used to detect face pairs in
case of imperfect offsets
Selecting an undetected pair manually
provides feedback on tolerance value
required, which can be used for
automated selection
Default value is set to zero
Mid Surfacing Improvements
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Default value is set to zero
Trimming and other cleanup
improvements
Without selection
tolerance
All the pairs detected
successfully with Selection
tolerance
Selection tolerance value
is suggested to user
A new option to import and
create Shaft geometry
Reads input from a text file and
automatically creates line
bodies with specified cross-
sections
Rotor Shaft Feature
Line bodies for rotor
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sections
Line bodies for rotor
shafts
Cross sections are
assigned automatically
Input data in a text file
Support for additional object types
Axis aligned annular cylinder
Axis aligned conical frustum
Axis aligned annular conical frustum
Support for Polygonal extrusion
Electronics Tool Improvements
Additional object types and
extrusion method for more
realistic simplification of
complex models
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Bi-directional geometry transfer
between Ansoft products and
Workbench applications for multi-
physics simulations
(DesignModeler/Mechanical/Meshing)
Improved Interoperability with Ansoft
Products
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Improved Named Selection transfer between ANSYS DesignModeler and other
ANSYS Workbench applications
Improved Error handling
Attach failures
Share topology failures
Improved Named Selection Transfer and Error
Handling
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A new export property inside
DesignModeler to control
named selection transfer to
other workbench applications
Improved error handling to
provide appropriate error and
warnings in case of failures
Associative Interfaces (Associative,
bidirectional and parametric)
Creo Parametric
Creo Elements/Pro
Creo Elements/Direct Modeling
CAD Readers
AutoCAD 2012*
Creo Elements/Pro
NX 7.5
Inventor 2011
CAD Interoperability Options
Geometry Interfaces at R14.0
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Creo Elements/Direct Modeling
NX 8.0
Inventor 2012
SolidWorks 2011
Solid Edge ST3 (103)
Solid Edge ST4
CATIA V5 R21
Teamcenter 8.0. 8.1, 8.3
Inventor 2011
SolidWorks 2011
Catia V5 R20
Catia V4
IGES and STEP
Parasolid 24.0
ACIS R20
GAMBIT 2.4
* Requires an AutoCAD installation
Improved ANSYS Workbench Integration
Improved Associativity and data transfer
Support for multiple design points
Preview options for Topology Sharing
Preview sharing to view topology sharing
ANSYS SpaceClaim: Improved Integration
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Preview sharing to view topology sharing
before transferring the model into Workbench
Help detect and fix topology sharing issues
before transfer
Progress reporting
Options to specify multiple faces as seeds
to create more than one volume in a
single step
Option to preview face selection
propagation to detect leaks during
volume extraction
ANSYS SpaceClaim: Volume Extract Tool
Improvements
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volume extraction
Improved Selection and Repair Options
More Selection Options
Select Parents
Select Children
ClipView option to isolate and
examine selected region
ANSYS SpaceClaim: Improved Selection and Repair
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Multi-face patch option for fixing
missing faces
ClipView
Without multi-face
patch on
With multi-face
patch on
ANSYS 14.0 Meshing
Advances
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Rapid & Robust Meshing
Top on the list of challenges
engineering companies are facing is
shortened product development
schedules while at the same time the
product designs themselves are
becoming increasingly complex.
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Meshing of these designs introduce
challenges in terms of speed,
robustness and accuracy.
Courtesy Siemens AG.
Enhanced productivity through increased automation,
flexibility, efficiency and robustness
Performance (Speed, Robustness)
Selective Meshing

ANSYS 14.0 Meshing Advances

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Virtual Topologies
Shell Meshing
Hex Meshing
ICEM CFD/Tgrid
Assembly Meshing (Tet and CutCell)
Prism (inflation) layers
Speed (~2x faster)
Robustness
Element/cell quality
Performance
Tet with inflation
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CutCell
Robustness
Cell quality
CutCell with inflation
Persistence
Record and replay sequence
of meshing steps
Flexibility
Adv. Front surface meshing
Separate min size
Selective Control
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Separate min size
for curvature & proximity
Convenience
Contact transfers to
FLUENT
Virtual Topologies (VT) enabling
improved automation, flexibility,
and usability:
More interactive usage through direct
graphics interaction rather than tree
objects
Ability to run Auto VT on selected
Cluster 1
Cluster 2
2 Virtual Faces created.
1 for each cluster.
Virtual Topologies
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Ability to run Auto VT on selected
edges, faces or bodies
Clustering of faces/edges
Create hard vertex
Face splits
Improved meshing performance
w/VTs
1 for each cluster.
Virtual Topologies
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Better quad smoothing:
Improved laplacian smoothing
More ruled mesh on rectangles, etc.
Shell Meshing Improvements
13.0 Default quad/tri
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13.0 Default quad/tri
14.0 Default quad/tri
Example has ribs attached that
are hidden
MultiZone improvements
Imprinting
Through bodies
Through long stretches of connected
side faces
Support for Match control
Hex Meshing
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Robustness
Speed
Speed improvements for multi-body
parts with swept blocks
Productivity enhancements through increased
robustness, flexibility, and efficiency
Stability and usability
~160 defects and feature requests resolved
User interface
Speed (display, selection)
ICEM CFD
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Speed (display, selection)
Model tree
Tetra/Prism
Prism editing
Upgraded TGrid implementation
Hexa
Options, usability, smoothing
MultiZone
Productivity enhancements through increased
robustness, flexibility, and efficiency
Assembly Meshing
CutCell-to-Tet conversion with remeshing
Prism speedup (~2x)
TGrid
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Prism speedup (~2x)
Assembly Meshing
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A New Approach to
Meshing
Assembly Meshing enables dramatically
reduced time to mesh for typical CAD
models by eliminating the tedious
geometry clean-up
Top-down approach to mesh all parts at
once
Uses Virtual Bodies (material points) to
automatically extract internal regions
Assembly Meshing
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automatically extract internal regions
from assemblies
Supports:
Meshing solids from sheet bodies
forming a closed domain
Conformal mesh between parts
without requiring multibody parts
Overlapping bodies
Tet (linear) and CutCell (hex-dominant)
mesh types
Program Controlled Inflation
1. The Customer Problem
2. Assembly meshing overview
3. New Features
1. Flow Volume Extraction
Assembly Meshing
Review
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1. Flow Volume Extraction
2. Sharp Angle, Thin Sections
3. Contacts and Leak closing
4. Demo: Mixing Tank
5. Miscellaneous features
6. Summary
Assembly Meshing
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The Customer Problem
CFD users need a quick way to generate the fluid volume mesh from complex
assemblies of geometric solid parts.
Geometry tolerances often require more accurate resolution of data (and more
work to achieve it) that the mesh later ignores as the mesh size is relatively much
larger.
The parts may not be in contact with each other, and they may contain sharp
angles, thin sections and gaps.
Assembly Meshing Motivation
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Poor CAD models that dont form watertight solid geometry.
By combining the flow volume extraction and meshing operations, the overall
meshing time and efficiency of the meshing workflow can be improved.
Solution:
Assembly meshing
The overall meshing process can often get elongated if the geometry is complex:
Assembly Meshing in Fluids:
Process Compression
Mesh Generation Mesh Setup Geometry Prep
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High Complexity
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Time to Mesh
Mesh
Generation
Mesh
Setup
Geometry
Prep
Low Complexity
Mesh
Generation
Mesh
Setup
Geometry
Prep
Med Complexity
Mesh
Generation
Mesh
Setup
Geometry
Prep
Assembly Meshing:
Process Compression
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Assembly meshing reduces the overall meshing time, by
combining the flow volume extraction and meshing
operations.
Part Meshing:
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M
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Time to Mesh
Mesh
Generation
Mesh
Setup
Assembly Meshing:
Geometry
Prep
Note: Mesh Generation time
is slightly longer, but overall
time is significantly reduced.
Mesh
Generation
Mesh
Setup
Geometry
Prep
Assembly Meshing
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Flow Volume, Inflation, Sharp Angle, Thin Sections
Maintains characteristics from CutCell at R13
High fraction of hex and prismatic cells
Supports global size functions, feature capture, tessellation, etc. controls
Operates on parts, multi-body parts, etc. with new option to define virtual bodies
Patch independent:
Eliminates the need for pinch control and VT operations
Creates conformal meshes across parts in contact
Eliminates the need for multi-body part generation in CAD
R14 Assembly Meshing: Characteristics
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Eliminates the need for multi-body part generation in CAD
Ability to create flow volumes from
a closed set of bodies (sheet or solid)
Eliminates the need for Boolean/Fill operations in CAD
Supports both CutCell and Tetrahedral meshes
Flow volume extraction: Three simple steps
1. Define Coordinate system inside the Fluid Void
2. Insert a Virtual body
3. Assign the proper Coordinate
System to the Material Point
R14 Assembly Meshing:
Flow Volume Extraction
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System to the Material Point
4. Done
#1
#2
#3
R14 Assembly Meshing:
Keep Solid Mesh
In the Assembly Meshing panel, you can choose to
keep or discard the mesh in all solids
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Parts can be marked
as Fluids/Solids
R14 Inflation Improvements
Industrial Example:
68 Million cells, 5 inflation layers
Total Mesh Time:
R13: 6 hrs 39 mins
R14: 3 hrs 38 mins
Speed and Flexibility of inflation:
Several improvements to both
assembly and part meshing
Better quality during stair stepping
Better handling of high aspect ratio inflation
Improved Speed of inflation creation ~30-100%
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Improved Speed of inflation creation ~30-100%
Also supported for Virtual Bodies
Program controlled inflation acts only on Fluid Bodies
R14 Assembly Meshing:
Automatic Inflation
CutCell + Inflation Tetrahedron + Inflation
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Sharp angle tool
A special cell cutting algorithm has been developed to
properly capture sharp 3D angles
Can be used to improve feature capturing in general
Insert a Sharp Angle and pick adjacent faces
Example:
R14 Assembly Meshing:
Mesh without Sharp Angle
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Example:
Sharp angles in the Flow volume of drill bit
Mesh with Sharp Angle
Find leaks using material points:
Any time you are using material points (for internal flow), and it is
leaking to the outside, you can automatically see the
leak-path together with the surface mesh
R14 Assembly Meshing Leak Handling:
Leakage Path
There is a small gap between the valve plug and the valve seat
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Using Contacts for Assembly meshing:
Workbench has extensive capabilities to detect contact
(interfaces) between parts.
Until now, that contact information has been of little use to
FLUENT users, but that is changing at R14.
R14 Assembly Meshing Leak Handling:
Contact (Interface) Regions
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Contacts have several purposes for
Assembly Meshing:
Closing of small gaps using contact sizing
Find thin sections
Find Contacts
Features at contact pairs are preserved
Contacts are also used in Fluid Surface
picker helper
For example, in this image
the circled edges would be
removed without contact
defined since the feature
angle is below the default
(40 degrees)
Closing a leak: Three simple steps
1. Define a Contact between
the entities that are leaking
Edge/face or Face/Face
2. Drag and drop the contact
R14 Assembly Meshing Leak Handling:
Closing Leaks
#1
Pick the face of the valve plug (blue)
and the edge of the valve seat (red)
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2. Drag and drop the contact
on top of the Mesh Icon
Creates a Contact sizing
3. Adjust Contact sizing
Use roughly 1/5 of min-size
4. Assembly Meshing
#2
#3
Why locate thin sections (3D bodies)?
The assembly meshing method produces better quality
meshes if thin baffles and fins are well resolved
By using the Find Thin Sections tool, these can be found
in advance and appropriate sizing can be applied
R14 Assembly Meshing:
Finding Thin Sections
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in advance and appropriate sizing can be applied
Assembly Meshing
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Mixing Tank Demo
R14 Assembly Meshing - Demo
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Improved turnaround time
Fewer manual steps
Fewer geometry cleanup operations
Avoids fluid extraction and other
Boolean operations
Summary: Assembly Meshing Advantages
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Boolean operations
Cell count reduction of 50%
CutCell vs. Patch Conforming tet
High fraction of Hex cells
Can find and close gaps in the model
Geometry Advances:
Usability
Analysis specific custom tools
Interoperability
SUMMARY
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Meshing Advances:
Automatic and Robust Meshing
Shell Meshing
Hex Meshing
ICEM CFD and TGrid