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There is an advanced feature in Gridgen that reduces boundary
layer mesh generation time from hours to minutes while pro-
ducing high quality grids that give accurate CFD solutions. This
feature, anisotropic tetrahedral meshing, is a little bit hidden,
so you may not be aware of it. And that name is kind of hard to
remember and pronounce, too, so lets just call it T-Rex.
What is T-Rex? It is a technique for extruding regular layers of
high-quality tetrahedra from boundaries. The tetrahedra can be
recombined into prisms if you prefer.
Figures 1 and 2, above: A structured grid (above) and a T-Rex grid
(below). Figures 3 and 4, right: These charts show that T-Rex grids
produce equivalent solution accuracy to a structured grid, plus
The advantage of using tetrahedra to start the process is that
they are fully unstructured. That means the mesh can adjust, or
even stop, locally without affecting other mesh regions. This lets
us do things like automatically detect convex corners, concave
corners, and colliding fronts and provide special handling for
them without any user intervention. (That means it is fast!)
Will my CFD code like T-Rex? Yes. T-Rex cells are designed
to minimize maximum included angles and cell volume ratios,
which are two key characteristics for improved CFD solver
T-Rex grids are much easier to build and take only a small fraction
of the time needed to make a structured grid.
Winter 2010
T-Rex: Automated Boundary Layer Meshing
T o l l F r e e ( 8 0 0 ) 4 P T W I S E w w w . p o i n t w i s e . c o m
Figure 5: A high quality T-Rex mesh around an automotive body.
The inset image highlights the automatic collision detection
between the underbody and ground.
accuracy. Figures 1 and 2 show a structured grid and a T-Rex
grid for a standard benchmark case, the ONERA M6 Wing in
transonic ow.
The CFD results on these two grids are compared in Figures 3
and 4. Figure 3 shows the pressure coefcient distribution at the
65 percent span location. This shows the pressures and shock
locations are in agreement between the solutions on the two
grids. The basic ow and the interaction between the shocks and
boundary layer are correctly captured on the T-Rex grid. Figure 4
shows a plot of skin friction coefcient at the 65 percent span
location for both grids. Again, the agreement is excellent.
How can I learn more about T-Rex? A detailed explanation
of how T-Rex works can be found here: http://www.pointwise.
com/T-Rex. Also, Tutorial 13. DLR F-6 Aircraft: Anisotropic Tet-
rahedral Meshing in the Gridgen Tutorial Manual shows the
mechanics of mechanics of T-Rex meshing in Gridgen. Migra-
tion of the T-Rex method from Gridgen to Pointwise already
has begun so you should look forward to using it in our next
generation software soon.
2 1 3 S o u t h J e n n i n g s A v e n u e
F o r t W o r t h , T e x a s 7 6 1 0 4 - 1 1 0 7
F i r s t C l a s s
P r e s o r t
U S P o s t a g e
P A I D
A r l i n g t o n , T X
P e r m i t 4 1 9
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