How to create mesh using ICEM CFD

By: 1. Zamri Abdullah (zamriabdl@yahoo.com) In the Design Modeler, click on the Project tab. Go to the Proceed Advanced Meshing

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Then a new window will appear for the ICEM CFD

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Look at the top left window; make sure you click the curves and surfaces boxes. And see the effect on the geometry in the main window

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Now you need to name your inlet outlet and wall of the geometry. To do this, right click the Parts box in the left window, and a sub menu will pop up.

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Click on the Create Part and a window on the bottom left will appear. Type any name on the Part box. E.g. IN..

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Then click the yellow arrow button. Then a menu will pop up like this. Make sure you click the buttons in the red box below.

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Then select the part indicated IN in your geometry which includes all curves and surfaces for that part. Left click to select, middle click to finish.

Left click to select

Right click to confirm. Then the selected part will change in colour.

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Do the same thing to all parts OUT and WALL. Then you can check whether your selected part that has been names is correct or not by unchecking the boxes in the top left window for the IN, OUT and WALL. If there is some part of the geometry still exist when you check the SOLID_1_1 box (it may be different name if you use other machines), then you might want to redo the step above. Once completed, make sure when you uncheck all boxes except for SOLID_1_1, there is nothing left in the main window that shows the geometry (in other words, the window should be empty).

10. Then, delete the SOLID_1_1 box by right click

delete.

11. Now your system is ready to be meshed. First you must create a BODY for the system. Go to the tabs on the upper side of the window, and click the Geometry Create Body. (The fourth button on the geometry tab)

12. Then a menu will appear like this. Click the Centroid of 2 Points, and the yellow arrow.

13. A menu will pop up in the main window. Select any two point on the geometry, preferably the far top left and the far bottom right.

14. Then middle click the mouse to confirm. And you can see the word Body will appear on the geometry.

15. Now go to Blocking

Create Block.

16. Upon clicking the create block, a menu will appear in the bottom left like this. Click on the select geometry, the click OK

17. Then you can see a block is created on your geometry. Curves

Edges 18. Now you need to associate the edges of the block to the curves of the geometry. To do this, go to the Blocking Associate

19. A menu will appear. Click on the Associate edge to Curve.

20. Then click the Edge(s) button by which, in this case the all the line on one side of the bounding box. When you click it, it will turn into other colour (red). Then middle click to confirm. Then you can look at both the edges and the details in the dialog box after you finish.

21. Do the same procedure for curves.

22. Do the same thing for the other end of the box. 23. Once you finish, click the Update Association button and apply

24. Then click on the Snap Project vertices All Visible OK. And you see the effect on the geometry. The box is now moved inside the geometry.

25. Now the box (or now called, block) will serve as the basis of your meshing. 26. To get a better mesh, you need to construct an O-grid. To do this, go to Blocking Split Block. Then a menu will appear on the bottom left.

27. Click the O-grid Block. Click on the Select Block and Select Faces to select the respective blocks and faces with respect to the O-grid.

For the block, once you click the Select Block +, then click to any point inside the geometry, and middle click to confirm. A green block will then appear.

For the face, click two faces on the inlet and outlet of the geometry. Middle click to confirm. Then blue boxes will appear respectively.

28. Set your Offset value. Offset vale is how far will the edge of the original block will be located from the side to create a new O-grid block. You can try any value and see the difference in your geometry. Then click OK to finish.

29. Now you need to create your mesh parameters. Go to Mesh

Part Mesh Setup

30. A menu box will appear for you to fill in the values for the parameter. You can set any values that you require and see the difference. For start, lets put the values 1 in the boxes as shown below and remain the other values unchanged. Click Apply Dismiss.

31. Then Go to Blocking

Pre-Mesh Params

Update Sizes

Update All

OK

32. To generate mesh, click on the Pre-Mesh box in the top left window, and a menu will pop up. Then click Yes on the pop-up menu.

33. And you can see the mesh is now being created.

34. You can check the no. of nodes, and other parameters at the dialog box under the geometry.

35. Now save your project in the Save Project. Also its important to know that you can always save the blocking, the meshing and all other steps that youve done in the previous steps separately in the File drop down menu. 36. You can also save your geometry, the blocking and meshing as you wish as well.

37. Now, in order to make the mesh that youve just created usable, you need to convert it to what ICEM called unstructed mesh. Go to the Pre Mesh box again, right click and click on the Convert to Unstruc mesh.

38. Next is save the mesh in *.cfx5 file. Go to Output Select Solver. Make sure you select ANSYS CFX in the Output Solver box and ANSYS in the Common Structural Solver box. Then click OK.

39. Then on the same output tab, click on the Write Input button. Then a Save As box will appear. Name it as you wish. Click OK.

40. Make sure that you have the *.cfx5 file in your folder for the project that youve just created.