Describe_Geometry_Lesson_5

This lesson [1] [2] is part-2 of the two-part series on performing share topology in the Ansys Fluent
Meshing Watertight Geometry Workflow and will focus on the interface connect method. We will
dig into the finer details of this method and understand how and when to use it.

Let’s get started.

The alternative to the Join-intersect share topology method, discussed in part-1 of this lesson, is
the Interface Connect method. This method can be used to achieve increased robustness and
speed of share topology operation when there are matching overlapped surfaces between bodies.

Matching here refers to the overlapping surfaces having similar shape and dimensions.

The reason for this is that the method is based on first stitching the edges of surfaces that overlap
with each other and then removing one of the overlapping surfaces.

Note: The method can also be used for fixing non-matching overlapped surfaces.

In order to use this method efficiently, it is recommended to create labels or named selections for
the overlapping surfaces at the CAD creation level, though the method also works when no labels
are defined. When using Ansys SpaceClaim to prepare the CAD, labels can be defined on surfaces
in multiple ways.

Let’s quickly look at how this can be done.

We will be using the geometry shown here for our demo. The standard way of creating labels is to
select the appropriate geometrical feature and select ‘Create NS’ from the ‘Groups’ tab.

When the CAD is loaded into Ansys Fluent Meshing, these named selections are imported as labels.

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(2:18) Notice that the two cylinders are connected to two rectangular surfaces on both sides.

As discussed earlier, the interface connect method works best when the overlapping surfaces are
of similar shape and dimension. Here, we need to split the rectangular surface to create two circular
regions where the cylinders are connected.
For this, we can use the “imprint feature” from the Prepare tab. When this option is selected,
SpaceClaim automatically detects coincident faces, edges or vertices and imprints them onto the
connected geometry.

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Here, we see that the 4 circular edges of the cylinders are highlighted when Imprint option is
selected. Click on the green arrow to implement the imprint operation.

(3:11) We can now see that rectangular surfaces have been split into circular surfaces where
the cylinders are connected to it.

Now, create the named selections for the overlapping faces.

Once these are created, let us now load this model into Ansys Fluent in meshing mode.

Here is Ansys Fluent in meshing mode with Watertight Geometry workflow selected. In the ‘Import
Geometry’ task, leave all other options to default and read the geometry file.

We will not be adding any local sizing and will create the surface mesh with default settings for this
demo. If we now look at one of the overlapping pairs, we can clearly see the overlapping mesh,
which needs to be fixed.

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Ansys Fluent automatically adds the ‘Apply Share Topology’ task to the workflow after the surface
mesh is created, if it detects that a multi-body part has been imported without any shared topology.

Before moving to the ‘Apply Share Topology’ task, the Describe Geometry task needs to be
executed. Here, since we have only the solid regions, we will select the first option for the Geometry
Type. We will leave all other options to default and click Describe Geometry.

(4:44) In the Apply Share Topology task, let us now select the “Interface Connect” for the Share
Topology Method. There are 3 ways to select the surfaces to implement this share topology
method, which can be chosen from the “Interface Labels Selection Method” setting under
Advanced Options.

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When named selections have been defined for the overlapping surfaces at the CAD level, the default
label selection method is the ‘Manual’ method. Here, simply select all the surfaces, in this case 8
surfaces, that overlap with each other and hit ‘Apply Share Topology’. The meshing algorithm
will first stitch the overlapping surfaces and then remove one of the surfaces, and remesh locally to
create a conformal mesh at the interface, as we can see here.

If the labels need to be maintained for boundary condition specification or post-processing

purposes, it is recommended to set the ‘Rename Internals Based on Body Names?’ setting to “No”.

For details on other advanced options, please refer to the User Guide. For most cases, the default
values for these settings are sufficient. The other method that can be used to select the overlapping
surfaces is the “Automatic method”. As the name suggests, the overlapping surfaces are
automatically identified by the meshing algorithm and hence no manual user selection is required.
This is helpful when no labels are defined. However, because the algorithm has to brute force
identify the overlapping surfaces, there is virtually no speed-up that is attained when using this
method, when compared to the default join-intersect share topology method.

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(6:43) Let us now go back to SpaceClaim to discuss another method of creating named selections.
Here we have the same model as before, with imprint operation already performed but with no
named selections defined.

Now, we will use the Force Share option from the Workbench tab to automatically define the named
selections.

When this option is selected, SpaceClaim performs a contact check between the bodies
and highlights them in the graphics window.

If we turn on the ‘Only create contact groups’ option in the Options for the Force Share operation
and select the green tick mark to complete the operation, Space Claim will only create named
selections for overlapping surfaces but does not perform share topology.

The named selections will have a naming convention that starts with ‘Connect Topology’ followed
by a number. The number of named selections created depends on the number of contacts in the
model. In our case, we have 4 contacts and hence 4 named selections.

Note: Each named selection contains both the overlapping surfaces. Let’s now import this
geometry into Watertight Workflow and perform the same steps as earlier till Describe Geometry

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task. In the Apply Share Topology task, the default share topology method is automatically set to
‘Interface Connect’.

This is because the meshing algorithm automatically identified overlapping surfaces based on the
labels created when the “Force Share” operation was performed in SpaceClaim. If we now look at
“interface labels selection method” under advanced options, it is set to ‘Automatic – Using Connect
Topology’. No manual label selection is required. Leave ‘Rename Internals Based on Body Names?’
option to “Yes” to rename the surfaces based on body names. Select Apply share Topology
to perform the share topology operation and create a conformal mesh between the connected
bodies.

When using the interface connect share topology method, it is recommended to set the ‘Ignore
Proximity Across Objects’ option to “yes” while generating the surface.

This forces Fluent Meshing to ignore any small gaps between adjacent bodies typically applicable
in cases where there are duplicate faces or edges between different bodies. Turning on this option
improves the performance of the interface connect method.

Let’s summarize what we learnt in this lesson.

In cases where share topology cannot be performed at the CAD creation phase, it is possible to do
this operation at the meshing phase when using the watertight geometry workflow using the Apply
Share Topology task.
In this lesson, we looked at the interface connect method to perform share topology between
different bodies.

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We learnt about the functioning of the method and requirement of labeling the overlapping or
connected surfaces at the CAD creation level to improve the robustness and speed of the interface
connect share topology operation.

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References

[1] "Ansys Innovation Space," [Online]. Available: shorturl.at/iuVY2.

[2] "Ansys Learning (YouTube)," [Online]. Available: shorturl.at/abIX8.

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