AM 12 Appendix A

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Appendix A

Mesh Quality
ANSYS Meshing
Application Introduction
Appendix A: Mesh Quality
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Overview
Mesh Quality Metrics in ANSYS Meshing
Skewness
Aspect Ratio
Worst Element
Mesh Quality Considerations for the FLUENT Solver
General Considerations
Impact of Mesh Quality on the Solution
Mesh Quality Considerations for the CFX Solver
Factors Affecting Mesh Quality
CAD Issues
Mesh Resolution and Distribution
Meshing Method
Inflation
Strategies to Improve Mesh Quality
CAD Cleanup
Virtual Topology
Pinch Controls
Sensible Mesh Sizings and Inflation Settings
General Recommendations
Workshop A.1 Virtual Topology for an Auto Manifold
Workshop A.2 FLUENT and CFX Mesh Quality Metrics

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Mesh Quality Metrics in ANSYS Meshing
Mesh Metrics are available under
Mesh Options to set and review
mesh metric information and to
evaluate mesh quality

Different physics and different
solvers have different requirements
for mesh quality

Mesh metrics available in ANSYS
Meshing include:
Element Quality
Aspect Ratio
Jacobian Ration
Warping Factor
Parallel Deviation
Maximum Corner Angle
Skewness
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Skewness

Two methods for determining skewness:
1. Based on the Equilateral Volume deviation:

Skewness =

Applies only to triangles and tetrahedra
Default method for tris and tets

2. Based on the deviation from a Normalized
Angle deviation:

Skewness =

Where is the equiangular face/cell (60 for
tets and tris, and 90 for quads and hexas)
Applies to all cell and face shapes
Used for prisms and pyramids
e
min
e
e
e max
,
180
max

min
max
optimal cell size cell size
optimal cell size
optimal (equilateral) cell

actual cell
circumsphere
Mesh Quality Metrics
e
0 1
Perfect Worst
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aspect ratio = 1 high-aspect-ratio quad
aspect ratio = 1 high-aspect-ratio triangle
Mesh Quality Metrics
Aspect Ratio

Aspect for generic triangles and quads is a
function of the ratio of longest side to the
shortest side of the reconstructed
quadrangles (see User Guide for details)
Equal to 1 (ideal) for an equilateral triangle
or a square
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Mesh Quality Statistics in ANSYS Meshing
The min, max, averaged and standard
deviation for the selected mesh metric
are shown for the surface mesh (after
Preview Surface Mesh generation) and
for the volume mesh (after Preview
Inflation layer or Generate Mesh
generation)

The worst elements can be highlighted
using the Show Worst Elements under
the Mesh object in the Tree Outline
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Mesh Quality Considerations for FLUENT
FLUENT requires high quality mesh to avoid numerical diffusion
Several Mesh Quality Metrics are involved in order to quantify the quality,
however the skewness is the primary metric
The aspect ratio and cell size change mesh metrics are also very
important
In worst scenarios and depending on the solver used (density based or
pressure based) FLUENT can tolerate poor mesh quality. However some
applications may require higher mesh quality, resolution and good mesh
distribution
The location of poor quality elements helps determine their effect
Some overall mesh quality metrics may be obtained in Ansys Meshing
under the Statistics object
Additional mesh quality metrics may be retrieved in FLUENT GUI under
Mesh/Info/Quality from the menu, or using the TUI commands
mesh/quality
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Mesh Quality Requirements for FLUENT
The most important mesh metrics for Fluent are:
Skewness
Aspect Ratio
Cell Size Change (not implemented in Ansys
Meshing)
For all/most applications:
For Skewness:
For Hexa, Tri and Quad: it should be less than 0.8
For tetrahedra: it should be less than 0.9
For Aspect Ratio:
It should be less than 40, but this depends on
the flow characteristics
More than 50 may be tolerated at the inflation
layers
For Cell Size Change:
It should be between 1 and 2.
Poor mesh quality may
lead to inaccurate
solution and/or slow
convergence

Some applications may
require even lower
skewness than the
suggested value
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Skewness and the Fluent Solver
High skewness values are not recommended
Generally try to keep maximum skewness of volume mesh < 0.95.
However this value is strongly related to type of physics and the location
of the cell
FLUENT reports negative cell volumes if volume mesh contains
degenerate cells.
Classification of the mesh quality metrics based on skewness:

* In some circumstances the pressure based solver in Fluent can handle
meshes containing a small percentage of cells with skewness ~0.98.
0-0.25 0.25-0.50 0.50-0.80 0.80-0.95 0.95-0.98 0.98-1.00*
Excellent very good good acceptable bad Inacceptable*
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(max,avg)
CSKEW
=(0.912,0.291)
(max,avg)
CAR
=(62.731,7.402)
(max,avg)
CSKEW
=(0.801,0.287)
(max,avg)
CAR
=(8.153,1.298)
Vz
MIN
-100ft/min
Vz
MAX
400ft/min
Vz
MIN
-90ft/min
Vz
MAX
600ft/min
Impact of the Mesh Quality on the Solution
Large cell size change
Example
M
e
s
h

2

M
e
s
h

1

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Mesh Quality Considerations for CFX
Mesh quality requirements are somewhat different for the CFX
solver than for the FLUENT solver due to the difference in the
solver structure for the two codes
Fluent uses a a cell-centered scheme, in which the fluid flow variables are
allocated at the center of the computational cell, and the mesh-element is
the same as the solver-element
CFX employs a vertex-centered scheme for which the fluid flow variables
are stored at the cell vertex, and the solver-element or control volume is a
dual of the mesh-element. This means that the vertex of the mesh-
element is the center of the solver-element

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Mesh Quality Considerations for CFX
The CFX solver calculates 3 important measures of mesh
quality at the start of a run and updates them each time the
mesh is deformed
Mesh Orthogonality
Aspect Ratio
Expansion Factor
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Mesh Statistics |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Domain Name: Air Duct
Minimum Orthogonality Angle [degrees] = 20.4 ok
Maximum Aspect Ratio = 13.5 OK
Maximum Mesh Expansion Factor = 700.4 !
Domain Name: Water Pipe
Global Mesh Quality Statistics :
Good
(OK)
Acceptable
(ok)
Questionable
(!)
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Orthogonality measures alignment of:
ip-face normal vector, n, &
node-to-node vector, s.
Orthogonality Factor = ns, >1/3 desirable
Orthogonality Angle = 90-acos(ns), >20 desirable
Are these different than Max/Min Face Angles in CFD Post? YES!
Face angles correspond to angles between edges
One can have an acceptable Face Angle and an unacceptable Orthogonality
Angle if an element is skewed in two directions
Mesh Orthogonality in CFX
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Mesh Expansion Factor in CFX
Expansion factor measures how
poorly the nodal position corresponds
to the control volume centroid
Mesh Expansion Factor ratio of largest to smallest element
volumes surrounding a node,
<20 is desirable
The Mesh Expansion Factor is essentially identical to the Element Volume
Ratio in CFD Post
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Mesh Aspect Ratio in CFX
Aspect ratio measures how stretched a
control volume is
Aspect Ratio = maximum of the ratio of largest to smallest
ip-areas for each element surrounding a node,
<100 is desirable
The Aspect Ratio is very similar to the Edge Length Ratio in CFD Post

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Significance of Mesh Quality in CFX
Sources of discretisation error
non-orthogonality introduces errors in flux approximations
large mesh expansion introduces errors in storage and source
approximations
Amplification of discretisation error
corrections to reduce errors caused by non-orthogonality can create
unphysical influences
Difficulties solving linearised equations
large aspect ratios require use of more significant digits
(i.e. use of double precision solver)
Why is geometrical mesh quality important?
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CAD Issues
Small edges, sharp edges and faces
Small gaps/passages between edges and faces
Unconnected geometry entities
CAD issues need to
be fixed to avoid this
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Mesh Resolution
and Distribution
Geometry with
abrupt changes,
discontinuities
and/or small gaps
may require more
resolution, and
Mesh distribution
where appropriate to
be able to predict
physical conditions
Inappropriate
resolution and
distribution may lead
to large cell size
change, aspect ratio
and/or skewness

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Type of Size Function
Inappropriate usage (or
no usage at all) of
Advanced Size Functions
(ASF) may lead to poor
mesh quality
Use Curvature ASF for
geometries with
dominant curvature
features
Use Proximity ASF for
geometries with gaps or
narrow components
Use Curvature and
Proximity ASF in
geometries having a
combination of these
features

ASF may be used to
avoid this !
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Factors Affecting the Mesh Quality
Meshing Method
Inappropriate usage of Meshing Method (Automatic, Tetrahedrons, Sweep, MultiZone
and CFX-Mesh) may lead to large skewness
The selection of the Meshing Method depends on the geometry and application
It is a good practice to use Show the Sweepable Bodies under the Mesh object in the
Tree Outline
Many applications may take advantage of Patch Conforming and Sweep Meshing Method

A relatively good mesh in
terms of max skewness,
however the average and
standard deviation are large
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Inflation
Inappropriate:
Surface mesh
quality
Choice of the
inflation surfaces
Inflation Option
Inflation algorithm
(layer compression
or stair-stepping)
Inflation
parameters
Advanced Inflation
Options

may lead to poor
mesh quality!
Affected Inflation
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CAD cleanup
Use CAD or DM to:
Simplify the geometry
Merge small edges
Merge the faces in
order to reduce the
number of faces
Avoid narrow faces
Keep volume gaps only
where important
Decompose the
geometry
Remove unnecessary
geometries
Add geometries
Repair the geometry
After split edge/Project
edge/merge face in DM
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Virtual topology
Use VT in order to
simplify details at
geometry level in AM

Can be added under
Model object in the
Tree Outline

Mesh may be
improved by creating
virtual edges/faces

If the resulting
surface mesh is
distorted consider
fixing the geometry
issue in DM or CAD

After virtual merging of
narrow face with wide face
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Pinch Controls
Allow to remove small features (small edges
or narrow faces) at the mesh level
Intended for Patch-Conforming Tetrahedral Method
When it is defined the small features are pinched-
out from the mesh when pinch criteria are met
Pinch locations are detected
automatically with Pinch Controls under
Mesh object in the Tree Outline
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Sensible Mesh Sizings and Inflation Settings

The minimal size decreased 2X in order to
fit the narrow geometry. As a result the
mesh quality has been improved. Local
face sizing may also be used
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General Recommendations

A volume mesh may be considered inacceptable if it satisfies one or more the
following conditions:
Very high skewness for FLUENT meshes(> 0.98)
Degenerate cells (skewness ~ 1)
High aspect ratio cells
Negative volumes

Cell Quality can be improved by:
Improving surface mesh quality
Moving mesh nodes
CAD to fix geometric problems such as sharp angles, small edges, merge faces unite
and/or decompose the geometries
Clean-up tools in DM to simplify the geometries and their entities
Different methods, global and local sizings and parameters in the ANSYS Meshing
Application
Pinch Controls in the ANSYS Meshing Application to avoid small features
Virtual topology in the ANSYS Meshing Application in order to simplify the geometry
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Miscellaneous

If the model contains multiple
parts or bodies the mesh metric
information can be shown by
highlighting them under the
Geometry object in the Tree
Outline
The Body of Influence (BOI)
technique may be used also to
control the mesh quality and
appropriate local resolution
More advanced mesh statistics
including histograms can be
exhibited by FE Modeler Mesh
Metrics in FEM
Different mesh quality metrics
can also be viewed in CFD Post

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Virtual Topology for an
Auto Manifold
Workshop A.1
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Goals
This workshop uses the manifold geometry from workshop 5.2. Recall that
this geometry contains many problematic small faces and sharp angles.
In workshop 5.2, the Patch Independent method was used to produce a
good quality mesh without modifying the geometry. In this workshop Virtual
Topology will be used to remove the problematic geometry and then the
default Patch Conforming meshing method will be used.

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Starting the Project
1. Launch ANSYS 12.0 Workbench
2. Click on Component Systems in the Toolbox on the LHS of the main panel
3. Double click the Mesh option to add it to the Project Schematic
4. In the Project Schematic right-click on Geometry and select Import
Geometry > Browse. Select the file Auto-Manifold.agdb
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Named Selections
5. Next, make sure that Named Selections will be brought into Meshing:
6. Right-click on cell A2 and then select Properties
7. Ensure Named Selections is checked, and the Named Selection Key is
blank
8. Close the Properties window
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Edit the Mesh
9. Edit the Mesh (cell A3)
The Meshing window will open
10. Start by suppressing the fluid region and meshing the solid:
Select the Body selection icon from the toolbar

Select the inner fluid region, so
that it is highlighted in green, and
then right-click and select
Suppress Body
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Mesh Settings
11. Select Mesh from the Outline tree
12. In the Details view set the Physics Preference to CFD
The assumption here is that heat transfer will be solved in the solid region
using a CFD solver
13. Expand the Sizing section in the
Details view and set:
Span Angle Center = Medium
Min Size = 1.0 mm
Max Face Size = 10.0 mm
Max Tet Size = 10.0 mm
14. Right-click on Mesh in the Outline
tree and select Preview Surface
Mesh
Since the body is not sweepable, the
Patch Conforming method will be
applied by default
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Examine the Mesh
The Patch Conforming method meshes each individual surface. This
produces a poor quality mesh on some surfaces in this geometry.
Examine the surface mesh and look for regions of poor mesh quality. By
switching between Geometry and Mesh in the Outline tree relate regions of
poor mesh quality to the underlying surface geometry. Some examples
are shown here:
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Adding Virtual Topology
Virtual Topology allows you to merge adjacent surfaces, removing
undesirable surface geometry feature and producing a higher quality
mesh
15. Right-click on Model (A3) in the Outline tree and select Insert > Virtual
Topology

A Virtual Topology entry is added to the Outline tree
In the Details view note that the Behaviour is set to Low
16. Right-click on Virtual Topology in the Outline tree and select Generate
Virtual Cells
This automatically creates virtual cells using a Low merging strategy.
Medium and High strategies are likely to result in more faces being
merged into virtual cells
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Virtual Topology
When Virtual Topology is selected in the Outline tree the viewer shows
all virtual cells that have been created
Examine the new surface geometry and note that most of the
problematic faces have been merged to produce a cleaner surface
geometry
17. In the Details view change the Behaviour to Medium
Right-click on Virtual Topology in the Outline tree and select Generate
Virtual Cells
Note that more faces have been merged
into virtual cells
18. Try generating virtual cells using the High
option for Behaviour
This does not work as well for this
geometry as shown to the right
19. Switch back to the Medium option and
generate the virtual cells again
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Examine Improved Mesh
20. Re-create the surface mesh and examine the regions that previously
showed poor mesh quality
You should find that the surface mesh has been greatly improved
21. There are still some regions where the mesh quality could be improved.
The arrows below shows one of these locations.
If you zoom in and examine the geometry here you will find a kink at the
edge of the surface
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Adding Virtual Cells Manually
22. You can manually add Virtual Cells to improve the mesh further

Pick the Face selection icon from the toolbar

Orient the view approximately as shown below (note the X-Y axes)
Check that Virtual Topology is selected from the Outline tree
Select the four faces shown below, then right-click and select Insert > Virtual
Cell
1 2
4
3
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Examining Improved Mesh
23. Re-create the surface mesh and examine the region again
You should find an improved surface mesh
You can continue adding Virtual Cells as necessary
In some cases the automatic virtual cell creation may merge faces that
you do not want to merge. You can delete individual virtual cells by
selecting the Virtual Face from below the Virtual Topology entry in the
Outline tree and right-clicking to delete.

24. Right-click on Mesh and select Generate Mesh to create the final solid
mesh
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Viewing the Fluid Body
The next step is to create the mesh for
the fluid region
25. In the Outline tree expand the Geometry
> Part section

Right-click on the first solid and select
Hide Body to hide the solid region

Right-click on the suppressed (second)
solid and select Unsuppress Body

With the second solid selected, in the
Details view expand the Graphical
Properties section and set the
Transparency to 1
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Adding Inflation
26. Select Virtual Topology from the Outline tree
Virtual Cells have already been created on the fluid region from earlier
27. Check that the automatic virtual cells look reasonable
There should be no small surfaces remaining in the model
28. The next step is to add inflation to the fluid walls
Right-click on Mesh and select Insert > Inflation
In the Geometry field you need to select the solid body corresponding to the
fluid region from the Viewer then click Apply
Once this has been selected click on No Selection in the Boundary field so
that the Apply / Cancel buttons appear
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Creating the Fluid Mesh
Now select one of the faces from the
model that is not an inlet or outlet
Select Extend to Limits from the
toolbar as shown:
All the fluid walls should now be
selected
Click Apply in the Boundary field in
the Details view

29. To generate the final mesh right-click
on Mesh and select Generate Mesh

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Checking the Mesh Quality
30. Expand the Statistics entry and set the
Mesh Metric to Skewness. Note that the
Max Skewness is within the acceptable range
for the FLUENT solver.

31. If you had generate the mesh without VT, the
Max Skewness would have been considerably
higher
Without Virtual Cells
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Fluid Region Mesh
NO VT
VT
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FLUENT and CFX Mesh
Quality Metrics
Workshop A.2
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Goals
This hands on tutorial will demonstrate how the Meshing Application in
ANSYS is used to generate a CFD mesh for an internal flow domain
The geometry represents portions of an aerospace valve region,
decomposed into 3 bodies
The goal is to produce a conformal hybrid CFD mesh including hex,
pyramid, prism and tetrahedral elements including pinch controls and to
examine mesh quality metrics for the Fluent and CFX solver preferences

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Creating a Meshing System
1. Launch ANSYS Workbench from the START menu

2. Click on Component Systems in the Toolbox on the LHS of the WB
main panel

3. Double click the Mesh
option

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4. Right click (RMB) on the Geometry button and select Import Geometry (the
question mark on the button goes away once a geometry file is imported)

5. Import the Aero-Valve.agdb file from the tutorial folder
6. Double click on the Mesh button in the Project Schematic to launch the Meshing
Application
Importing the Geometry
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Geometry
7. The original geometry is a Solid part and the Fluid region was extracted
out in DesignModeler (DM). Other operations performed in DM;
A parameter was defined for the position of the valve
Some outlet ports were closed
One multi-body part was created and a given the name Fluid and the material Fluid
Individual bodies were re-named and Named Selection was used to define the Inlet
and Outlet
Fillets were added to some
sharp corners to improve
mesh quality

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8. In the Meshing Options panel select the following meshing options:
Physics Preference
CFD
Mesh Method
Automatic
Click OK after you
make the selection

In Units, make sure
the setting is mm

Meshing Options
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9. Set global Mesh control parameters:
Click on Mesh to change settings
Verify Defaults
Physics Preference
CFD
Solver Preference
Fluent or CFX
Fluent is used initially, but results for the CFX
setting are also presented

Set Sizing parameters
Set Use Advanced Size Function
On: Curvature
Set Curvature Normal Angle to 15
Set Min Size to 0.20 mm
Maintain all other defaults
Global Mesh Parameters
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10. Set Inflation parameters
Click drop-list for Use Automatic Tet Inflation and select Program
Controlled, leave all others as default

Set Maximum Layers to 4
Activate View Advanced Options

11. Set Pinch control

Set Pinch Tolerance = 0.15 mm
Activate Generate on Refresh

12. Set Mesh Metrics to Skewness ( for Fluent)
Inflation and Pinch Parameters
Note: Program Controlled Inflation will add inflation on all boundaries that do
not have assigned Name Selection. It does not add inflation to Fluid-Fluid
interfaces
Note: Smooth Transition provides a transition between the inflation layers and
the tetrahedral mesh following the specified Growth Rate
Note: Layer Compression is the default Collision Avoidance
for Fluent and Stair Stepping is default for CFX
Note: When edge length or distance between vertices is less than the pinch
tolerance, software will ignore the edge or remove extra vertex during meshing
Note: Pinch Tolerance should be
smaller than Size Function Min Size
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13. Create Pinch control :
Right-Mouse-Button -click in the Tree (RMB (Tree))
Select Create Pinch Controls
10 Pinch Controls are created (Expand the Mesh button to list the pinch
controls)

Pinch Controls
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Viewing Pinch Controls
14.View the Pinch Controls
Ctrl Left-Mouse-Button Select the Pinch controls, these will be
highlighted in the viewing window

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15. Assign Sweep Method to the inlet and outlet bodies:

Sweep Method
Select Mesh button in Tree
Select the bodies (as shown below)
Set the Cursor Mode to Body Selection
Left-Mouse-Button click (Select) one sweepable body
Hold Ctrl key and select the second body
Insert Method
Right-Mouse-Button -click in the graphics window (RMB (Window))
Insert - Method
The Automatic Method form appears
In the Automatic Method form
Select Sweep from the
pull-down menu

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16. Set Sweep Method controls
Src/Trg Selection;
Select Manual Source
Click on the Source Selection Field
This will activate the face picker
Hold the Ctrl key and pick both the Inlet
and the Outlet face
Apply the Selection

Additional Settings
Set Free Face Mesh Type; All Quad
Set Sweep Num Divs; 20
Set Sweep Bias Type; _ __ ___ __ _
Set Sweep Bias; 4

Sweep Method Settings
Inlet
Outlet
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17. 2D-Inflation on swept bodies:
Pick Faces;
Set the Cursor Mode to Face Selection
Select the Inlet and Outlet faces (green)
RMB (Window) Insert-Inflation
Pick Edges
Set the Cursor Mode to Edge selection
Select four edges surrounding the
inlet and outlet faces (marked in red)
Apply the selection

Inflation Settings
Set Maximum Thickness:
3.0 mm
Maintain all other options

Inflating the Sweep
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18. Surface-mesh the model:
Right-click on Mesh and select Preview Surface Mesh
This will provide us with feedback about mesh quality and density

The Advanced Size Function creates a very fine mesh in the swept bodies,
We can reduce the size by specifying the edge intervals on the Inlet and Outlet
Initial Surface Mesh
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Edge Sizing
19. Scoped edge mesh on swept bodies:
Insert Scoped Edge Size ;
Activate edge picker
Pick the four edges
surrounding the
inlet and outlet faces
Right-click
Insert ->Sizing

Set Parameters
Change the Type
Number of Divisions; 20
Change Behavior; Hard

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20. Check the inflation layer: (Optional)
Right-click on Mesh and select Preview Inflation
View the mesh Statistics, mesh size and max skew is around 310000
and 0.92 respectively
We are ready for volume meshing

Preview Inflation
.
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21. Mesh the model:
RMB (Tree) select Generate Mesh
Again, check the Statistics for the total element count and Max Skewness
which will be around 926000 and 0.92 respectively

Volume Mesh with Fluent Settings
.
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22. Create a Section Plane:
Click on the Z-Axis at the lower
right corner to orient the model
Click the Selection Plane icon
Press and hold the left mouse
button while moving along the
indicated red arrow then
release
The position of the Section
Plane can be adjusted by
moving the slider bar

Click on Show Whole
Element

Reselect the rotation button to
adjust the view
Using a Section Plane to View Internal Mesh
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23. Rotate the geometry to view the mesh
RMB (Tree) Show Worst Elements
Note the location; far from the main flow field

Viewing the Worst Elements
Tip: Select Wireframe from the
View menu to help see the element
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CFX Solver Preference
24. Using CFX Solver Preference (optional)
Change Solver Preference: CFX
RMB (Tree) select Generate Mesh
Note the higher Max Skewness for the CFX Solver settings
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25. Check quality in FEModeler (optional)
Meshing application
RMB (Tree) Update
Close Meshing Application
Workbench 2
Drag-and-Drop FE Modeler on
top of Mesh in the Project Schematic
Double click on Model
FEModeler
RMB (Tree) Insert Mesh Metrics
Mesh Metrics - Valve 4 Node
Linear Tetrahedron
Set Mesh Metric Type: Aspect Ratio
Max aspect ratio is less than 50

Checking the Quality in FEModeler
.
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Saving the Project

26.The mesh is now complete

Select File > Close to close FEModeler

In the WB panel select Update
In the WB panel select File > Save Project As and give the project a
name

Exit from ANSYS Workbench by selecting File > Exit

AM 12 Appendix A

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AM 12 Appendix A

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ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary

optimal (equilateral) cell

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