ICEM CFD 5.

1 New Features

Workshop 15
Hybrid meshing of a simple
HVAC assembly

ANSYS ICEM CFD v5.1

Create a Project

Workshop

Choose Open Project Icon

Browse to the desired working directory
Enter the project name
Type in the File name as: HVAC_Hybrid.prj

Tips:
The pull down next to the file name can be used
to quickly locate recently used projects.
In Windows, The File browser is a standard
Windows file browser offering all the
functionality of windows explorer.
In Unix or Linux, similar functionality is also
available.

The Project file contains information about project settings, the working folder and file associations.
Once the geometry, mesh, boundary conditions, parameter files etc. are saved with the project file,
simply loading the project file will also load these associated files.
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Open Geometry

Workshop

Open The Geometry:

File -> Geometry -> Open Geometry Or use the
Open Geometry ICON
Select: Hybrid_HVAC.tin using File Browser
Display: activate Surfaces by left mouse click on icon

Display Tree

Display: Solid & Wire mode thru right mouse click on

Surfaces in Display Tree
Display: Transparent mode thru right mouse click on
Surfaces in Display Tree

HVAC
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Manage Parts

Workshop

Managing the Model tree will be very important for this tutorial. For
your convenience, the two primary halves of the model, the
Hex_Part and the Tetra_Part, have been placed in separate
assemblies.
The surface between the Hexa and Tetra volumes has been placed
in the Interface part
To turn a part or assembly on or off, click on the glasses ICON.
We will start by turning the Tetra assembly OFF
Hexa
Interface

Tetra

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Hexa Meshing

Workshop

#1

Turn off the Tetra Assembly so only the Hexa Assembly and
interface Surface are active. Its time to Hex Mesh this half
of the assembly.
Hex meshing is not the focus of this tutorial, so we can skip the
details of this step and load the blocking file I have provided

Compute
Pre-Mesh

Load Blocking:
File => Blocking => Open Blocking Or use the Open
Blocking utility icon
Open: HVACPipeBlocking.blk
Generate Mesh:

Expand the Blocking branch of the model tree

RMB on Pre-mesh and select Convert to Unstruct

Mesh

Save the project

Activate the Pre-mesh and Recompute

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Build Topology

Workshop
#2

#1

Now lets switch to the tetra portion. Turn off the Hex_Part assembly and turn on the
Tetra_Part assembly.

#3

BUILD TOPOLOGY:

#4

Geometry -> Repair Geometry -> Build Diagnostic Topology

Default: Tolerance is auto-calculated as 0.1

Filter by angle: Turn on Filter points and Filter curves

Default: New Part Name is set to Inherited

Turn on: Only active parts

This will prevent build topology from filtering out the curves on the Hex_Part

Accept other defaults and press Apply

#5

Many curves
are filtered out
#6

#7
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Only essential
feature curves
remain
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Set Mesh Sizes

Workshop
#1

#3
#2
#4

Assign Element Size:

Mesh -> Set Surface Mesh Params

Select all the surfaces with the a hotkey.

Set: Maximum element size to 4.

Defaults: other settings should remain 0.

press Apply.

Display Element Sizes:

RMB on surfaces

#5

Control
Display
through
RMB

Select Tetra Sizes

from the pull-down

Tetra icons indicate

tetra mesh sizes set
on each surface

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Control Display

Workshop
#1

This next part is very important. We are going to mesh only the visible tetra_part of this
HVAC assembly. We need to make sure that all the correct components are visible.

Display:

Expand the Geometry

Branch and activate all the
sub branches.

Make sure the Fluid and

Interface part, as well as
the Tetra_Part assembly
are active.

Make sure the Hex_Part

assembly is inactive

Save Project:
We will not be able to tetra
mesh in batch mode
without first saving the
project
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Mesh Tetrahedral

Workshop
#1

#2

Mesh Tetrahedral:
Mesh -> Mesh Tet -> From geometry

#3

Activate: Smooth transition

Activate: Run as batch process

Activate: Only visible geometry

press Apply.

#4
#5

#6

#7

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Load Hex Mesh with Tetra Mesh

Workshop
#1

#2
#3

Load Hex Mesh:

File -> Mesh -> Open Mesh or

use Open Mesh icon

A mesh is already loaded, how

do you wish to proceed

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Merge

Display all the shells and both

part assemblies

ICEM CFD 5.1 New Features

This Merge simply

concatenates the
mesh files, the
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Inspect Interface shells

Workshop

View the interface area:

Expand the mesh branch and the shells branch

Activate the shells branch

Turn off all the parts except interface

Turn off the geometry

Alternately display and blank the triangles and quads to see

that both layers are at the interface and are non conformal

Quads

Triangles
Overlapping
Triangles and
quads

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Inspect interface volume

Workshop

Display Mesh Cut Plane:

RMB on Mesh, select

Cut Plane

The Define Cut

Planes window
appears

Change Method to
Middle-X

Adjust Fraction value

to 0.65

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Display Mesh Volumes in the

model tree

Zooming in reveals that the

mesh needs to be merged

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Merge Mesh
#1

Workshop

#2

#3

#6

#4

#5

#7

Merge mesh:
Edit Mesh => Repair Mesh => Merge
Meshes
Method: Merge volume meshes
Merge surface mesh parts and select the
INTERFACE Part.
Accept and Apply
Observe:
Using the cut plane, observe that the mesh is
now node for node conformal across the
interface.

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Delete shells

Workshop

#1

#2

#3

The interface quads still remain

#4

Delete the Interface shell mesh:

Edit Mesh => Delete Elements

Use the Select mesh elements tool bar to select

items by part
select the INTERFACE part.

Accept

#5

The interface surface mesh is removed opening up the

part for flow.
Save the Project
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Mesh Prism

Workshop

#1

#3

Add Prism Layers:

Mesh => Mesh Prism

#4

#6

Name the New volume part Prism

Normally, leave this blank and the prisms
will inherit their volume part from the
original volume

Select parts to mesh

From the popup, select all the parts
except the inlet, outlets and interface
Leave the other fields blank

#7

#5

#8

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#2

Accept

Set: Initial height to 0.6

Default: Height ratio of 1.2

Set: Number of layers to 2

Compute Params to calculate total height

Accept the other defaults

Apply

ICEM CFD 5.1 New Features

Load the Prism Mesh!

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Display Hybrid Mesh

Workshop

Display:

Using the Mesh Cut Plane and transparent surfaces, view the mesh

The Prism portion is currently an orange color, while the tetra and Hexa
are blue and dark blue respectively. On the outer surface, the shells (tri
or quad) take on the color of their respective surfaces

The Volume element types now list Prisms

More/thicker layers are possible, but limited

by the height of the first volumetric hexa

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Prism layers can also be split

and redistributed from the
Edit Mesh menu

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Next steps

Quads

Workshop

Tris

Observe:

In the interface region, the prisms are

uninterrupted

Next Steps:

Prisms
Tetras
Hexas

The elements may all need to be in one

volume, use the model tree to add all three
volume regions into one volume part.

Smoothing/Diagnostics/Repair

Use the Output tab to select a solver

Apply Parameters and boundary conditions if

desired

Export to solver

Pyramids

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