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Meshing Tutorials

Three tutorial examples are provided here to demonstrate how to build CFD meshes using the meshing tools in STAR-CCM+. All cases represent realistic industrial applications that originate from different CAD data formats and demonstrate the necessary steps to prepare the surfaces ready for volume meshing. The first tutorial (control valve) illustrates the mesh generation tools in STAR-CCM+ for dealing with a geometry with the following characteristics: Three-dimensional, single region (half model). STL starting surface (closed and manifold). Mixture of inlet, outlet and symmetry type boundaries. The starting data originated from the STAR-Design software and represents a generic control valve design, commonly used for water management. Two variations of the geometry will be considered, namely the valve in an almost closed position and the valve in an open position. The same polyhedral meshing parameters will be used for both situations. The parameters used to build a trimmed cell mesh are also demonstrated. The second tutorial (heat exchanger unit) shows how STAR-CCM+ deals with geometries with the following characteristics: Three-dimensional, multi-region (half model). Parasolid Transmit starting geometry (single file containing assembly). Mixture of inlet, outlet, symmetry and interface type boundaries. The geometry was again built using the STAR-Design software and represents a generic heat exchanger unit. A polyhedral mesh containing a conformal mesh interface between the fluid and solid regions will be built. Prism layers will only be included in the fluid part. The third tutorial (manifold assembly) details how to use the surface wrapper tool to extract an internal closed surface from an assembly containing the following issues:

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Control Valve Meshing Tutorial

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the surface and volume meshing tools within STAR-CCM+ to build a single region polyhedral volume mesh with prism layers, starting from an STL type geometry exported from a CAD package. The inputs required to build a trimmed cell mesh with prism layers are also covered. The geometry is that of a control valve typically used for water flow management and is CFD ready. That is, the appropriate fluid side passage has been extracted and suitably prepared ready for CFD use. The geometry used in the tutorial is shown below.

The control valve is shown in an almost closed position, with flow entering at the near end and exiting at the far end. Only a half model will be constructed due to the symmetrical nature of the geometry. All the appropriate boundaries, along with feature curves, will be defined as part of the meshing process. A modified geometry, with the valve in an open position, will also be imported and the same meshing values used in the original mesh will be applied in order to remesh the new geometry at the push of a button. The remainder of this tutorial is split into the following sections: Objectives;

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STL geometry. The output window will show a summary of the progress made. A total of 5570 faces and 2787 vertices will be imported. An Import representation node will also be added to the Representations node. Click on the Representations > Import node to see the properties of the surface.

Visualizing the Surface Mesh The geometry will automatically be shown in the graphical display window once the import process is complete. Select the Scenes > Geometry Scene 1 > Displayers > Geometry 1 node.

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Use the mouse buttons to rotate the model to approximately as shown below:

As is typical of STL data, the triangle definition is relatively poor and coarsely faceted. The surface is closed and manifold however, and as such, can be used as a the basis of a surface remeshing operation in order to improve the triangle quality. Before this can be done, the boundaries and feature curves should be defined. Splitting the Boundaries Next we will prepare the boundaries so that they conform to what is required for the meshing tools. STL surfaces always only contain one patch definition meaning that only one boundary will be created on import for each file. This boundary needs to be split in order for different mesh (and eventually physics) properties can be applied to different parts of the model. Select the Regions > Region 1> Boundaries > control_valve boundary node.

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The result of the second combine operation is shown here:

There will be five boundaries remaining at this point. Note that if you selected a different boundary other than control_valve 7 to right-click on, then the resultant boundary list will look slightly different. We can now proceed to renaming the boundaries. Renaming the Boundaries Renaming the boundaries makes the mesh setup process easier by identifying the main surfaces that we will apply properties to. The following names and types will be used:
Boundary Name New Name Boundary Type

control_valve control_valve 2 control_valve 3 control_valve 7

Symmetry Plane Wall Inlet Valve Wall

Symmetry Plane Wall Velocity Inlet Wall Pressure Outlet

control_valve 12 Outlet

To rename a boundary and set the type, do the following: Select the control_valve node in the simulation tree, right-click and select

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Extracting Feature Curves Feature curves must be added to the import geometry in order to maintain sharp edges and any surface feature details in the surface remesher and volume meshes. Since STL surfaces do not contain feature edges in them, we will create new edges based on an angle criteria. Right-click on the Regions > Region 1 > Feature Curves node and select New Feature Curve > Mark Edges... from the pop-up menu.

The Mark Feature Edge Options dialog will appear. Do the following: Use the selection arrows to move all the boundaries for Region 1 over to the Selected box. Set the Sharp edge angle value to 20 degrees. Unselect the Mark free edges, Mark non-manifold edges, Mark patch perimeters and Mark boundary perimeters options. These options could be left on as they will not affect on the resulting feature curve creation for this case.

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The surface preparation related to the imported geometry is now complete. We can now proceed to setting up the meshing models that will be used. Selecting the Meshing Models We will use the surface remesher and the polyhedral volume mesher for this example, along with the prism mesher so that we can generate prism layers next to the walls in the surface. Right-click on the Continua > Mesh 1 > Models node and select Select Meshing Models... in the pop-up menu.

The Meshing Model Selection dialog will appear. In the panel, do the following: Select the Surface Remesher model from the Surface Mesh box. Select the Polyhedral Mesher from the Volume Mesh box. Select the Prism Layer Mesher from the Optional Meshing models box. The completed panel with selections is shown below:

Press the Close button to close the panel.

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Setting the Global Mesh Reference Values To view the global reference values required for the selected meshing models, open the Reference Values node. The following mesh inputs will be listed:

The following parameters will be used for this meshing tutorial:

Reference Node Name Property Name Value

Base Size Number of Prism Layers Prism Layer Stretching

Value Number of Prism Layers Prism Layer Stretching

0.06 m 2 (default) 1.5 (default) 4.0 36 (default) 1.3 (default) 2.0 (default) 0.0 (default)

Prism Layer Thickness > Rela- Percentage of Base tive Size Surface Curvature Surface Growth Rate Surface Proximity Surface Proximity # Pts/circle Surface Growth Rate # Points in a gap Search Floor

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In the Properties window, set Value to 0.06 m.

Repeat this for the other nodes in the list using the values supplied in the table. Setting the Boundary Mesh Values If no boundary or region wise values are set then the meshing models default to the global reference values. For this case, we will set custom values for the surface remesher triangulation (to increase the density) and prism layer thickness for the valve wall boundary. This is because: This is the area of flow interest and requires additional cells to be created; The gap between the valve and the outside wall is thinner than the rest of the geometry, so we will use a thinner prism layer in this area.

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Set the Percentage of Base size to 2.0.

This completes the boundary mesh setup. Running the Surface Remesher Since the surface remesher and volume mesher models have been selected in tandem then we could proceed and generate both meshes in one go. However, for training purposes, we will first generate the surface remesher mesh and view it before proceeding with the volume meshing. To do this, either: Press the toolbar; or (Generate Surface Mesh) button in the Mesh Generation

Select Mesh > Generate Surface Mesh from the pull-down menu on the main display.

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As can be seen, a higher surface triangulation is present in the valve wall area. This will translate into a higher volume mesh density.

Surface curvature based refinement is also visible on the curved parts of the geometry. The properties of the remeshed surface can be seen by clicking on the appropriate node in the Representations node. Running the Polyhedral Volume Mesher The polyhedral and prism layer meshers can now be run: Press the toolbar; or (Generate Volume Mesh) button in the Mesh Generation

Select Mesh > Generate Volume Mesh from the pull-down menu on the main display. As before, the output from the meshers will be shown in the Output window and status updated in the status bar. When the process is complete, the message Converting mesh into finite volume representation in Region Region 1 will be shown in the Output window. A summary of the mesh quality criteria (namely, the cell quality, face validity, skewness angle and volume ratio) for the core and prism meshes can be viewed by scrolling the Output window display up.

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The properties of the volume mesh can be seen by selecting the

Representations > Volume Mesh > Finite Volume Regions > Region 1 node.

Note that the above totals for cells, interior faces and vertices may differ slightly depending the machine type and architecture. This completes the volume meshing part of the exercise. You may now proceed to export the mesh, run an analysis of the mesh or jump to the part of the tutorial that explains how to replace the imported surface mesh with a modified version and produce a new mesh with one button press. You can also proceed to re-mesh the geometry using trimmed cells with prism layers. Be sure to save the simulation file first if you want to keep the results of this meshing session - a suggested simulation name is control_valve1.sim. Running an Analysis Running an analysis for this tutorial is optional but by doing so, it will demonstrate the ability for STAR-CCM+ to automatically map a solution from the current mesh to a new mesh built using either a modified geometry or different meshing parameters (such as a different mesh density or even a different type of mesh such as a trimmed cell one).

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Replacing the Surface Mesh Copy the control_valve_mod.dbs file from the /doc/tutorials/controlValve directory to your working directory. Then do the following: Right-click on the Representations > Import node and select Replace Surface... from the pop-up menu.

In the Open dialog that appears, select the control_valve_mod.dbs file

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Apply Representation > Import from the pop-up menu.

As the patch definitions in the new surface were identical to the original import then the boundaries were carried over from one model to the other. Feature curves were also contained in the new surface so these do not need to be re-created. If they didnt exist then they could be created using the same process as described earlier in this tutorial. The surface is ready to be remeshed. Re-running the Mesh Generation The surface remesher, polyhedral volume mesher and prism mesher can be executed in one go as follows: Press the toolbar; or (Generate Volume Mesh) button in the Mesh Generation

Select Mesh > Generate Volume Mesh from the pull-down menu on the main display. To view the new volume mesh representation when the process is done, do the following: Right-click on the Scenes > Geometry Scene 1 node and select Apply Representation > Volume Mesh from the pop-up menu.

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Selecting the Trimmer Meshing Model The first thing we will do is change the previously selected meshing models to use the trimmer and prism mesher models instead. Right-click on Continua > Mesh 1 > Models node and select Select Meshing Models... in the pop-up menu.

The Meshing Model Selection dialog will appear. In the Enabled Meshing models box in the panel, do the following: Unselect the Prism Layer Mesher model Unselect the Polyhedral Mesher model Unselect the Surface Remesher model Select the Trimmer model from the Volume Mesh box Select the Prism Layer Mesher from the Optional Meshing models box The completed panel with selections is shown below:

The surface remesher model was unselected since a good starting surface is now available from the previous session. Press the Close button to close the panel.

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Reference Node Name

Property Name

Value

Surface Size>Relative Target Size Template Growth Rate Template Growth Rate

Percentage of Base Default Growth Rate Surface Growth Rate

8.0 Fast (default) None (default)

The Maximum Cell Size node controls the maximum size of the cells that will be allowed away from the surface, that is, in the core. In this instance it has been left at the default value (10000% of the Base Size) meaning that the size is relatively unconstrained and can grow many times more than the surface size if required. If smaller cells were required in the core then this value should be reduced. The Template Growth Rate option controls the extent to which the cells are refined. The Default Growth Rate, set to Fast by default, controls the transition rate in the interior volume mesh (away from the surface). Setting it to fast means it will transition as quick as possible from one layer to the next, using a minimum of one cell for each transition layer. The Surface Growth Rate, set to None by default, controls the number of layers of cells at the surface. Setting it to none means that the default growth rate value will determine the number of cells to grow at the surface. If you wanted additional refined cells then you could choose one of the other options such as medium or slow, which would introduce at least 2 or 4 refined levels of cells respectively. Setting the Boundary Mesh Values Custom surface size values will be used for both the valve wall and the symmetry plane in order to control the density of the trimmed cell mesh. In the case of the valve wall, the surface size settings are used to increase the mesh density in the vicinity of the valve area above and beyond any refinements due to proximity effects. For the symmetry plane, there is no requirement to maintain the global surface mesh density, so we will allow the mesh size to increase up to a maximum size equal to the base size. We could also repeat this for the inlet and outlet boundaries if desired although this will not be demonstrated here. The same valve wall inputs as before will be used so we can proceed directly to the symmetry plane mesh conditions. Open the Regions > Region 1 > Symmetry Plane > Mesh Conditions node to view the available options. Select the Custom Surface Size node.

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Set the Percentage of Base value to be 100.0.

The Relative Target Size is already set to be 100% of the base size and does not need to be changed. The symmetry plane is now no longer constrained in the same way as the other surfaces in the geometry and larger cell sizes will be seen on this plane. We can now proceed to perform the meshing. Running the Trimmed Cell Mesher The trimmer and prism layer meshers can now be run: Press the toolbar; or (Generate Volume Mesh) button in the Mesh Generation

Select Mesh > Generate Volume Mesh from the pull-down menu on the main display.

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Heat Exchanger Unit Meshing Tutorial

This tutorial demonstrates how to use the surface and volume meshing tools within STAR-CCM+ to build a multi-region polyhedral volume mesh with prism layers, starting from an Parasolid Transmit geometry exported from a CAD package. A conformal mesh between each region is also enforced via the use of an in-place interface during the meshing procedure. The geometry is that of a heat exchanger unit and is CFD ready. That is, the appropriate fluid and solid side parts have been extracted and suitably prepared ready for CFD use. The geometry used in the tutorial is shown below.

The heat exchanger geometry was originally built using the STAR-Design CAD program by CD-adapco. A separate body was used to represent each part of the geometry but both bodies were saved to a single Parasolid Transmit file. The heat exchanger unit contains multiple fluid flow passages connected by two end plenums, one of which is split to force the flow around the system. The flow domain is contained with a solid material cylinder, which is hollow on the inside. Only a half model will be considered due to the

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Dening the Region Names and Types

The regions created during the import process can be reviewed by opening the Regions node in the simulation tree:

As can be seen, two regions were created during the import process, namely Body 1 and Body 2. If you select each in turn then the associated part will be highlighted in the display. To better identify the regions, we will rename them as fluid and solid, plus assign the appropriate region types. Select the Regions>Body 1 node.

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option in the pull-down menu for Type in the Properties window.

There is no requirement to set the region Type to anything other than Fluid Region as it has no effect on the meshing operations. However, setting the type is a good reminder of what type of region each part of the domain is and what type of prism layer mesh should be allocated to this region. The region icon will also change to reflect the new type. We can now proceed and define the boundary surfaces for each region.

Dening the Boundaries

The CAD import resulted in one boundary per region. CAD information that will distinguish one boundary surface from another is stored as patches within STAR-CCM+. One of the easiest ways of splitting a boundary surface into constituent boundaries is using this patch information. The reason for splitting is that we need to identify the flow boundaries, plus the interface boundary that will be used to indicate which surface planes are common to both regions and will require a conformal mesh condition.

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