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2 Release

Module 7: Geometry Preparation

Introduction to ANSYS Fluent Meshing

1 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Geometry Preparation

• What you will learn from this presentation

− Tools to create the computational domain
− Tools to close large openings/gaps
− Tools to find and fix small gaps and acute angles
− Tools to find small holes

2 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Preprocessing Workflow
Geometry Import
Geometry
Mesh Import Meshing Solver
Operations
Geometry Creation

Surface
Geometry Import Geometry Cleanup Remeshing
and Repair
Options
Meshing
Boundary Modify
Methods
Import CAD
Hybrid Mesh:
Diagnostics Tet,Hexcore,
Prisms, Pyramids
Import STL
Hole Filling
Thin Sweep
Read Mesh
Gap Closing
Cutcell

Faceted
Geometry
Geometry Global Mesh
Preparation
Operations Sizing
Operations
Plane Surface, Local Mesh
Faceted Booleans
Revolve Edges,
Sweep Edges, etc
with Build Sizing
Topology
Create Box, Proximity,
Frustrum, Cylinder, Curvature, Body of
Fluid Extraction
etc Influence, Soft,
with Wrapper
Hard, etc.

3 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Workflow for Working with Unclosed CAD

4 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Geometry Preparation - Introduction

• For all meshing workflows there is almost always some

upfront geometry preparation that has to be done, starting
from solid CAD
− For internal flow, inlets and outlets have to be capped
− For external flow, wind-tunnel domains have to be created and maybe
symmetry planes defined
− In conjugate heat transfer problems, gaps between solids need to be
closed
− Before wrapping of complex models like engines, all leakages need to
be closed
− Areas of high complexity geometry where impact on final CAE results is
low can be simplified

5 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Geometry Creation – Large Openings

• The first step for the user is to inspect and close large openings. This can be
done in CAD or using the following options in Fluent Meshing…

6 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Closing Inlets/Outlets and Large Openings

• There are many ways to cap inlets/outlets or patch holes

– For simple openings with conformal mesh
o Change selection filter to Edge (Ctrl-e) or icon
o Select an Edge and click on Create (F5)

– For multiple openings with conformal mesh

o Change selection filter to Face (Ctrl-f) or icon
o Select a face and click on Patch (Ctrl-r)

– For both these, the result is

depending on the Patch Options
located in the Ribbon
o If Separate is not invoked,
– A patch will be created and the patch will be
automatically merged to the zone of the
selected Edge/face

7 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Closing Inlets/Outlets and Large Openings

• There many ways to cap inlets/outlets or

patch holes
– Two simple options exist in the ribbon for patch
options
o Whether to remesh them (quality important) and/or
o Whether to Separate them (or add new triangles to
current face zones selected)
– If Separate is chosen, a Patch Option
panel will appear for assignments of :
o Object name
o Face Label/Zone name
o Object type
o Zone type

8 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Closing Inlets/Outlets and Large Openings

• There are many ways to cap inlets/outlets or patch holes

– For Complex openings
o Use Loop selection tools
o Select Nodes/Locations
o Close the loop and Create Patch
– This will always open the Create Cap panel 2
1
to assign
o Object name
5
o Face Label/Zone name
o Object type
o Zone type
o Remesh option 4
3
6

9 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Closing Inlets/Outlets and Large Openings

• Use standard zone creation tools

− Boundary -> Create ->
o Plane Surface
o Generic Cylinder
o Swept Surface
o Revolved surface

• Use Interactive creation tools

− Primitives toolbar
o Box
o Cylinder
o Frustum

10 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Box/Cylinder Creation

• Accessible from the tree

– Model menu

• Key points:
– As it is all faceted geometry a mesh
size (edge length) is required
– Choose “Create Object”
if you want to mesh this
and add as a “part” to
the Object list
– For Cylinder you can choose
to add caps to the ends

11 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Create  Cylinder (No Caps)

• The Cylinder tool can also be very useful for patching

gaps/holes for cylindrical geometry. Method:
− Select 3 Arc, 1 Height Node
− Select Nodes… Choose nodes 3 on one edge and 4th on
opposite edge
− Deselect Caps and Create Object
− Give Edge Length, Preview and Create
Example – annular patch Example – Frustum “side” patch

HN4 HN4
N1 N3
N2

CREATE
CREATE

N2 N3
N1

12 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Interactive Box/Cylinder Creation

• But you can also use the interactive Frustum to do the same operation
– Select Nodes… Choose nodes 3 on one edge and 4th on opposite edge
– Click on the Primitives Toolbar and select Frustum
o A preview of the shape will appear
– Click on the Create (+) icon
o Fill in the panel and click Create

HN4

N2

N3
N1

13 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Swept Surface

• Boundary  Create  Swept surface...

• Swept surface uses an edge zone
to sweep it into a face zone
− Select Edge Zones from the pull-down list

• Parameters to be defined:
− Total Distance specifies the total distance through which the
edge is to be projected.
− No. of Offsets specifies the number of interval counts of the
total distance.
− Vector specifies the direction in which the selected edge is to
be swept.
− Split Quad Faces toggles the creation of tri/quad faces for the
swept surface.
− Create Object will create an object for the user if geometry is
to be used for wrapping etc.

14 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Create Plane Surface

• The Plane Surface tool is useful for

• Plugging holes or gaps in the model before wrapping or as a tool to cut symmetry plane
• Common options
– Edge length dictates the mesh size
– Draw will create a preview of the face
– Scale +/- can grow or shrink the face
• Click on Create to create the surface.
– Draw allows for preview before creation
• Planes can also be used to preview size field if selected and remeshed

15 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Pre-Wrap Geometry Creation – Small Openings

• Before proceeding to the wrapping of objects, the user

should try to ensure the geometry is well closed enough to
extract flow/solid volumes without significant leakage
• Large openings such as inlets/outlets and surfaces which
failed to facet are often very obvious
• Smaller gaps/holes and sharp angles are often very well
hidden and require specific tools to find/fix
• If we don’t fix they can cause total leakage into void areas
or poor cross-over in surface meshes
• A number of tools are accessible from the tree:
− Objects  Diagnostics  Geometry
− Objects  Wrap  Fix Holes…
− Objects  Advanced  Remove Gaps…
Under-resolved small gap showing
“cross-over” between Face Zones
16 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
 Finding and Closing Smaller Gaps with Diagnostics

• Diagnostics are divided into three sections

− Geometry
o Find and fix assembly problems
– Gaps or intersections between objects
− Face connectivity
o Ensure surface mesh validity on Zones
– Free or multi-edges,
overlapping/intersecting faces, etc.
− Quality
o Improve surface mesh quality on Zones
– Using combinations of criteria

It is recommended to Improve Face Connectivity

via Node Merge Operation on Geometry Object
before using Capping/Gap Closing tools as better
connectivity aids their operation

17 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Object Diagnostics
Find and fix proximity issues using this workflow:
• Set Angle, Min and Max distances for
Proximity algorithm to detect gaps and angles
• Unselect Ignore Orientation
• Mark and click on First to find a gap
• There are several ways to close a gap
– Use Object-based GUI gap closing tool
• Node projection with Remove for Current (slide 20)
– Use graphic gap closing by zone projection
• Zone projection (slide 19)
– Use zone-based gap closing by marked triangles
• Node projection with (Ctrl-k) (slide 20)
– Use Construction Tools to create entities
that close the gap
– Do not close the gap
• Refine using size functions and resolve the gap instead!

18 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Gap Closing

Closing gaps using zone projection (Hot-Key)

• This method is recommended to used when you can
“cleanly” separate out a zone by a crisp angle and the
separated zone may be used to close the gap by projection
− Activate face filter (Ctrl-f) , pick a triangle on each side
− Use Separate (Ctrl-Shift-s) . This will separate out a face zone on
each side of the gap.
− Change to zone filter (Ctrl-z) , Select (generally) the bigger zone
and “set” as the target (Ctrl-s) .
− Select the smaller zone and project to target (Ctrl-p) . This will
close the gap
target zone The separation angle
is accessible from
Display - Controls

Project this zone to the target

19 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017
 Gap Closing

Closing Gaps using “marked triangles” Set target zone

• Recommended to used when you cannot cleanly Project zone

separate by angle. There are two options
1. Using “Remove for Current” in the diagnostics tool which
will open the Gap Closing tool
• Note that the objects needs to be of type “mesh”
• Source/target is based on Priority

2. Using the graphics short cut tool

• Pick the a target zone/object for the other zone to be projected
to using or Ctrl-s (set)
• Pick a second zone which is to be projected
• Use or Ctrl-k hot-key to open the remove gaps panel
• Change the parameters and use Mark to confirm that the
marked triangles
• Remove will close the gap by nodal projection

20 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017

 Resolving Gaps/Acute Angles within Objects

Face Proximity Diagnostics Acute angle can

• To find gaps and acute angles within create bad
feature capturing
(self) objects after wrapper

A fillet is created
to avoid the
problem

If we untick “ignore orientation” the Final mesh

face normals are used to search for after
proximity in a given direction wrapping
(recommended for assemblies)
21 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 31, 2017