Workshop 4.

2
Tetra Meshing - Valve
14.5 Release

Introduction to ANSYS
ICEM CFD
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 1 Release 14.5
 Set Working Directory
• Set working directory
– File > Change Working
Dir…
– Choose Valve
– OK
• To Import The Geometry
– File -> Import Geometry -
> ParaSolid
– Select: Valve.x_t using
the file browser and
click Open
– Set Units to Millimeter
and click Apply

ICEM CFD has no units, but parasolid format is

always in Meters, so you need it to scale the
numbers back to the unit system it was when
translated from CAD to parasolid

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 2 Release 14.5

 Build Topology
• Geometry > Repair Geometry >
Build Diagnostic Topology
– Accept all defaults
– Tolerance of 0.1 is computed from
diagonal of bounding box
– Click Apply
• Display the geometry
– Activate Surfaces by left mouse
clicking the check box in the
model tree
– Right mouse click in the model
tree on Surfaces > Solid & Wire

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 3 Release 14.5

 Create Parts
• Break the Geometry into Parts
– Turn off Curves visibility to more easily pick surfaces
– RMB on Parts and select Create Part from the pull down
– The Create Part panel appears
– Change the Part name to INLET
– Accept the default selection method Create Part by Selection
– Select the appropriate 3 inlet surfaces as shown below
– Middle mouse click
– Repeat the above steps for the other surface parts as shown

INLET

VALVESPHERE

OUTLET

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 4 Release 14.5

 Create Parts – Continued
• Continue dividing the geometry into Parts
– Turn off the VALVESPHERE part in the Model tree. This will expose the Valve
Inside
– Create a new Part, VALVE and add the 6 surfaces of the valve head to this Part
• Separate parts makes it easier to visualize segments of the model by turning
parts on and off
• Separate INLET and OUTLET Parts are essential to apply individual
boundary conditions. The BC’s are applied to the part names.
• Note: the Parts are color matched with their names in the model tree

VALVE

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 5 Release 14.5

 Create Material Point
• Tetra Octree will assign the volume elements to the part name
of the material point inside the closed collection of surfaces
– The material point must be inside the volume and not on a surface
• Select Geometry > Create Body
– Right click on Surfaces > Wireframe in model tree
– Enter FLUID_MAT as the Part name
– Click on Material Point button
– Select two screen locations so that the middle of these locations is
inside the model
– Middle click to accept and then again to exit the function
– Take note that Bodies appeared in the model tree
– Rotate the geometry on the screen to ensure the material point is
inside the region to mesh

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 6 Release 14.5

2
 Build Topology
• Remember that curves and points act as constraints to the
mesher, so let’s remove curves and points which are not at
hard angles
– Geometry > Repair Geometry > Build Diagnostic Topology
– Default: Tolerance is auto-calculated as 0.1
– Filter by angle: Turn on Filter points and Filter curves
– Set Feature angle to 15
– Default: Part name is set to Inherit Part
– Turn Curves on to see what will change
– Accept other defaults and Click Apply

Many curves
are filtered out

Only essential feature

curves remain
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 7 Release 14.5
 Global Mesh Size
• Set the max volume element size in the entire mesh
• Mesh > Global Mesh Setup > Global Mesh Size
– Set Max element = 64
– Click Apply
– Turn on Display under Max element to see a one-icon
display of this size in the center of the model
• This is a very large element size but the mesh will
be controlled based on surface sizing performed in
the next step
– The initial surrounding octree mesh is seeded with
this size, so too small a max size will make meshing
take longer

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 8 Release 14.5

 Surface Mesh Size
• Set Surface Mesh Size
– Mesh -> Surface Mesh Setup
– Click the Select surface(s) picker
– The Select geometry popup tool bar appears, use the
Select All icon to select all the surfaces

– Set the Maximum size to 4

– Click Apply
– Right mouse click on Surfaces > Tetra Sizes in Model
tree to see a visual display of the sizes

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 9 Release 14.5

 First turn on Curves
Curve Mesh Size in the model tree

• Go to Mesh -> Curve Mesh Set up

– Method -> General
– Press the Select Curve(s) button and select the
indicated 4 curves, then middle mouse
– Set Maximum Size to 2
– Set Tetra Width to 3
• Increases the radius of influence of this sizing
control (3 layers at max size 2)
– Click Apply
• Display Curve Mesh Size
– RMB on Curves > Curve Tetra Sizes in tree

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 10 Release 14.5

 Create Density Region
• Create Density Box to locally control volume mesh size
– Surface and curve sizes only control mesh sizes on those
entities. Densities control mesh sizes within a volume.
– Mesh -> Create Mesh Density
– Set the Size to 2
– Set the Type to Entity bounds
– Use the Select geometry picker
– The Select geometry popup tool bar appears, use the
Select Items in a Part Icon to select the ValveSphere
Part
– Accept, then Apply

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 11 Release 14.5

 Compute Mesh
• Select Mesh > Compute Mesh > Volume Mesh
– Set Mesh Method > Robust (Octree) (default)
– Click Compute

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 12 Release 14.5

 Cutplane View
The Surface Tetra Sizes affect
• Cutplane View the mesh near the surface
– RMB on Mesh > Cut Plane… > Manage Cut
Plane in the model tree The Curve Size and
– Change the Cut Plane Method to Middle X width set to 3 affect
Plane the mesh size within
at least three
– Adjust the Fraction Value to display this elements of the
image (about 0.43) curves
– Activate Volumes from the Mesh branch

The Density region

controls the max
element size
within the valve
sphere

The Global max size limits the largest element

possible, but it may not be reached
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 13 Release 14.5
 Check Mesh Quality
• Check mesh quality
– Select Edit Mesh > Display Mesh Quality
• Set the Criterion to Quality (default)
• Click Apply
• Check the quality histogram. Smooth mesh if
needed

• Save Project when satisfied with quality

– File > Save Project as…
• Enter Valve.prj

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. April 1, 2013 14 Release 14.5