18.
2 Release
Module 1: Introduction
Introduction to ANSYS Fluent Meshing
1 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Introduction to ANSYS Fluent Meshing
• Fluent Meshing overview and characteristics
− Characteristics and Terminology
− Boundary and Volume mesh generation/manipulation methods
− Flexibility
− What’s new in R18
• Summary
2 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Fluent Meshing Characteristics
• Embedded into the Fluent User
Interface
• Modern Interface, Model tree & Icons
• Read CAD and also surface mesh
complex multi-region assemblies
• Geared towards advanced users with a
lot of control
• Can handle billion cell + meshes
• Scriptable for batch execution
3 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Fluent Meshing Technology
• Historically Fluent Meshing (legacy TGrid) was a volume mesh filler with
surface mesh editing tools
Courtesy of Lola Cars
− Widely used in the aerospace and automotive markets,
o including F1 for many years
− Can create very high quality, large cell count, hybrid volume meshes
4 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Fluent Meshing Technology
• A class leading surface wrapping technology was developed
Courtesy of John Deere Courtesy of Materialise Courtesy of Lilleaker Consulting AS
and Inocean-Marotec AS
• Enlarges the scope of applications like : HVAC, Oil & Gas, Biomedical or
Underhood Thermal Management where :
− Starting point is faceted/STL geometry or CAD
− Geometry can be “dirty” with disconnected surfaces, overlapping geometry,
surface intersections, holes, etc.
5 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Boundary Mesh Tools Examples
Display cut-planes Preview min & max sizes and Display/fix highly skewed
local size fields faces/cells
Surface wrapping and Join/intersection and connection Full local control
remeshing
6 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Volume Mesh Generation Methods
Tetrahedral
Hexcore
CutCell
Thin Volume
Prisms
Poly
7 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Mesh Flexibility
• Connect separated surface meshes together to
make conformal then fill
• Connect external hexahedral meshes to triangular
surface meshes and fill shell volume
• Scriptable TUI with extensive wildcard support
• Sweep quad/tri surfaces into hex/prism volumes
• Remeshing tools to redistribute and improve
surface meshes
Remesh
• Import 3rd Party meshes and fix, improve quality,
remesh, or insert “post” prism layers
8 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Possible Workflows
SURFACE MESH VOLUME MESH
9 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Caveats
• Certain operations in Fluent Meshing cannot be undone
− Merge nodes globally
− Delete Face Zones
− Surface projection
− ...
We therefore advise saving meshes
incrementally as you work!
10 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
What’s New in R18?
• User interface
− Cad Assembly module
− Octree based HexCore meshing
− More robust/Better quality Native poly
11 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
Summary
• Fluent Meshing is a robust and powerful mesh generation software for
unstructured meshing
• Fluent Meshing contains several tools:
− To handle, repair and improve boundary meshes
− Surface Wrapping capabilities that can be used to generate CFD meshes on highly complex
and “dirty” geometry
− Class leading distributed parallel prism mesh generation capabilities allowing the capture of
boundary layers on complex geometry
− High quality tetrahedral and hexcore meshing algorithms
− Polyhedral mesh generation which creates low cell count meshes of high quality
− Scripted meshing for repeatability and capture of best practices
• Deep toolbox of flexible commands – a “transparent meshing toolbox”
12 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
