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ANSYS Meshing Application Introduction: Appendix B CFX-Mesh
ANSYS Meshing Application Introduction: Appendix B CFX-Mesh
ANSYS Meshing Application Introduction: Appendix B CFX-Mesh
CFX-Mesh
ANSYS Meshing
Application Introduction
• Geometry used for meshing in CFX-Mesh must consist of one or more Solid
Bodies
• In CFX-Mesh, the body will have the units specified in DM
• Surface Bodies and Line Bodies are not supported in CFX-Mesh
– On import of certain file formats, Workbench will convert sets of surfaces which fully
enclose to a volume into Solid Bodies (see DM documentation for details)
• Solid Bodies must not overlap each other
• Where Solid Bodies in a multi-body part touch, they must have common faces
• Bodies which are Frozen in DM will appear in CFX-Mesh and can be meshed
• To exclude a Solid Body from meshing, you can either suppress/delete it in
DM, or suppress it in CFX-Mesh
• Example 1:
– When Solid Bodies in a multi-body part touch, they must have
common faces
– If two bodies contact as shown, the face at the end of pipe is
not one of the faces of the cylinder, CFX-Mesh will fail in
generating mesh if the two bodies are in a single part
– How to meet CFX-Mesh topology requirements?
wrong
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Appendix B: CFX-Mesh
Geometry Requirements Training Manual
right
• Example 2:
– When part of pipe intrudes into the cylinder, part of the side
surface is external to the cylinder, while the other part is
internal to it.
– What should the two bodies look like if they are in a single
part?
Cylindrical
Cut-Out
wrong
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Appendix B: CFX-Mesh
Geometry Requirements Training Manual
right
• The CFX-Mesh Help provides many useful examples of what can and cannot
be handled in CFX-Mesh, and some ways around difficult geometries,
including:
– Bodies Joined by a Common Face
– Bodies Touching at a Face
– Body with a Hole
– Body with an Enclosed Body
– Bodies with an Enclosed Body and a Hole
– Body with an Enclosed Body Touching the Face
– Non-Manifold Geometry
– Closed Faces (ie. Cylinders)
– Thin Surface Topology
– Poorly Parameterized Surfaces
– Degenerate Geometry
A single virtual
surface
• Two formats
– .CMDB file
• Contains mesh and mesh settings
• Larger file which takes longer to
generate for large meshes
– .GTM file
• Suitable for import directly into CFX-
PRE
• Access Options from the Tools Menu
• The right panel will show various CFX
options.
• Face spacings have a volumetric effect. The region over which they
act are determined by the following settings:
– Radius of Influence: extent of the Face Spacing influence, after which it will
expand according to the Expansion Factor
– Expansion Factor: rate of expansion of mesh scale from surface to interior
With surface curvature sensitive meshing Without surface curvature sensitive meshing
• Length Scale
– For the mesh size where the Point
Spacing is applied
– Must be less than Body Spacing
Max
• Radius of Influence
– Radial extent of the fixed local
length scale influence
• Expansion Factor
– Geometric rate of increase of
local element length scale beyond
radius
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Appendix B: CFX-Mesh
Point Control Training Manual
• Using Periodicity allows you to generate identical meshes for faces that will
be specified as part of a periodic boundary condition in ANSYS CFX
• Rules/Limitations:
– Each face in the Location 1 face list must map to an equivalent face in the Location
2 face list
– Multiple faces can be selected for each of Location 1 and Location 2, provided
each face in the Location 1 face list maps onto a face in the Location 2 face list
using the specified transformation
– Inflation cannot be applied to a face which is part of a Periodic Pair
• Total Thickness
– The total thickness of the inflation is
controlled by the:
• Thickness Multiplier
• Local element edge length
– Determined by Face Spacing and
Controls
• Maximum Thickness
– Set individually for each Inflated
Boundary
– Creates a less smooth transition from the
inflated prism mesh elements to the
tetrahedral mesh elements
– The number of inflated layers is more
constant, and you have some control over
height of layers on face-by face basis
• Process used for creating the layers of prisms when using the Total
Thickness option is given below:
– CFX-Mesh calculates the total thickness of the inflation layers as follows:
• Multiply the Thickness Multiplier by the local element edge length
• Where this is less than the specified Maximum Thickness, then this gives the
total thickness of the layers
• Where this is greater than the specified maximum Thickness, then the
Maximum Thickness is taken to be the total thickness of the layers
– Use the specified Number of Inflated Layers and Expansion Factor to calculate the
height of each layer, given the total thickness that has just been calculated
• Inflation thickness will not be constant over the inflated edge if the element
edge length changes in the region of the inflation layer
y = Ly+ 80 Re(-13/14)
Process used for creating the layers of prisms when using the First Layer
Thickness option is given below
• Put a single layer of prisms against the faces of the inflated boundary,
of a height equal to the First Prism Height
z x
– Edge proximity
• ON by default
• Adjusts mesh based on
mesh size on neighboring
edges
– Surface proximity
• OFF by default
• Adjusts mesh based on gap
between neighboring
surfaces
Edge Proximity ON
Edge Proximity OFF Edge Proximity ON
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Appendix B: CFX-Mesh
Surface Proximity Training Manual
• Delaunay (default)
– works on “closed” surfaces
– Delaunay mesh quality is not good
on poorly parameterized surfaces
• Advancing Front
– produces higher quality elements
at boundaries
– traditionally slower than Delaunay
– cannot mesh “closed” surfaces
• Extruded 2D Mesh
– See next two slides
Extrusion Options
• 2D Extrusion Option
– Full = extrude through the full extent of the
geometry
– Partial = thickness of elements determined
automatically such that element quality is
high. Will not necessarily fill geometry for a
given number of layers
• Number of Layers
• Distribution
– distribution of element heights along the
extrusion can be uniform or biased
• Expansion Factor
– Set the growth rate for the thickness of
elements in non-uniform extrusion
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Appendix B: CFX-Mesh
Options – Volume Meshing Training Manual
• Shine (%)
• Display Mesh – Controls how much light is
– Mesh Before Inflation reflected by the faces of the mesh
– Mesh After Inflation – 0% gives lowest reflection and looks
matt
– Inflated Front shows triangles across – 100% gives highest reflection and looks
the top of the inflated elements very bright
– Inflated Mesh shows the inflation layers
only • Face Color Mode
– Body shows mesh the same colour as
• Transparency (%) body
– Uniform allows you to pick a color
– 100% means completely transparent
– Rainbow shows the mesh on each face
– 0% means completely opaque
in a different colour, as different as
possible
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Appendix B: CFX-Mesh
Mesh Statistics Training Manual
• Mesh Statistics
– Shows Number of Quads and
Triangles (Surface Elements) in the
Preview Group
• By Default CFX-Mesh resolves every edge using a minimum of 3 vertices and meshes every face
• Results in a large mesh when there are many short edges and narrow faces in the CAD data
• Virtual Topology allows users to combine faces and edges into Virtual Faces and
Virtual Edges
Select Virtual Topology in the Automatic Merge Option defines whether the automatic
Tree View. Controls are available Virtual Topology operation should be applied to the whole
in the Details View model (the default) or whether it should only apply to a
selection of faces.
The face selection can be defined by selecting the faces
directly from the graphics window or by selecting a Region
name in the tree view.
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Appendix B: CFX-Mesh
Virtual Topology Example Training Manual
Virtual Edges
Virtual Face
• Virtual Face …
– Where possible, CFX-Mesh will automatically merge external edges to form Virtual Edges.
– This behavior can be turned off from the Options panel
Single Edge
Aircraft Engine-Airframe
This workshop will take you through the process of importing an aircraft
engine and airframe model prepared in DesignModeler, setting the mesh
spacings, and generating a surface mesh for a CFD analysis. You will
return to this workshop later (Workshop A.4) and add virtual topology.
• Goals:
– Import the DM model file.
– Define 2D regions for boundary conditions.
– Define mesh spacings
Inlet Symmetry
Bottom
Top
Right
Outlet
– The CAD model has many narrow surfaces which are not significant to the flow
analysis
– The CAD model has many short edges because of the way the surfaces are
constructed
– By default CFX-Mesh, resolves these narrow surfaces and short edges, resulting in
unnecessary mesh refinement and poor quality elements
– We will revisit this geometry in Workshop B.4 and create virtual faces and virtual
edges to remove the unnecessary narrow faces and edges, thereby by reducing the
mesh size and improving quality
18. For now, save the CFX-Mesh database (File > Save Project)
• This workshop will take you through the process of meshing a Static Mixer
geometry with CFX-Mesh. Line mesh controls and inflation
layers will be added to better refine the mesh
9. Note that the model is now displayed in the CFX meshing environment.
12. Right-click on Regions in the Tree View and select Insert Composite Region
• Create a Composite Region named in1 at the side pipe inlet as shown
13. Create a Composite Region named in2 at the other side pipe inlet as shown
14. Create a Composite Region named out at the bottom pipe outlet as shown
15. Click on the + sign next to the Spacing entry in the Tree
View to expand it
16. Set the Default Body Spacing to 0.20 m
• Note the mesh size preview icon in the viewport
17. Set the Default Face Spacing Option to Angular Resolution with a setting of 18°
18. Set the Minimum Edge Length to 0.015 m and the Maximum to 0.20 m
• Again note the mesh size preview icon
• The first part of this tutorial resulted in a rather coarse mesh with no
resolution of the boundary layer near walls
• Instead, a mesh control will be defined to refine the mesh in the area of the
two pipe inlets. Also, an inflation layer will be added to the all walls in the
geometry to better resolve the boundary layer
Extruded Mesh
• This workshop will take you through the process of meshing a simple
box geometry with an extruded 2D mesh. The Full extrusion option
will be demonstrated.
20. Set the Default Face Spacing Option to Constant with a setting of 0.10 in
25. Right-click on the Default Preview Group and select Generate Surface Meshes
• Since there are now quad faces on the ends from the inflated layer, a combination of
hex and prism elements will be generated when the mesh is extruded
• This workshop will take you through the process of using virtual topology to
create a better quality mesh for the aircraft engine geometry imported in
Workshop B.1
• Goals:
– Use Automatic Virtual Topology to improve mesh quality
1. Open the CFX-Mesh database that you saved at the end of Workshop B.1
– The CAD model has many narrow surfaces which are not significant to
the flow analysis
– CAD model has many short edges because of the way the surfaces
are constructed
4. Find any virtual faces which include the wing leading edge faces and delete them
• These are Virtual Face 8 and Virtual Face 11
5. Find the virtual face which include the wing trailing edge and delete it
• This is Virtual Face 7
6. Regenerate the surface mesh to see the effect of adding virtual topology
• You could further modify the mesh by creating virtual faces and edges in
selected areas manually to further improve the mesh quality
7. Generate the volume mesh and save the CFX-Mesh database