Introduction to meshing and ANSYS ICEMCFD GUI - Part I

Summary

Dive into the comprehensive world of ANSYS ICEMCFD with this introductory lecture, focusing on the software's meshing capabilities crucial for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Learners will discover how to activate the CFD version, understand pre-processing tasks, and explore mesh generation methods. The session covers essential concepts such as domain discretization, boundary taggings, and mesh export procedures. You'll also get acquainted with the ICEMCFD user interface, its components, and necessary file types. By the end, attendees will be equipped to navigate ICEMCFD's pre-processing features efficiently, paving the way for seamless CFD analysis.

Highlights

• Kickstart your ICEMCFD journey and activate essential features! 🚀
• Get a grip on the fundamentals of pre-processing for CFD analysis! 📊
• Explore mesh generation techniques: structured, unstructured, and more! 🔍
• Navigate the intricate ICEMCFD user interface like a pro! 🎨
• Unearth the secrets of essential project files and their role in CFD! 🗄️

Key Takeaways

• Learn to activate the CFD version of ANSYS ICEMCFD and set up the UI components! 🖥️
• Pre-processing involves geometry creation, grid generation, and boundary tagging! 📐
• Discover different mesh generation methods: structured, unstructured, and hybrid! 🕸️
• Master the ICEMCFD UI: menu icons, function tabs, and model tree! 🗂️
• Understand file types: PRJ, TIN, UNS, BLK for effective project management! 📂

Overview

Welcome to the expansive world of ANSYS ICEMCFD—a powerful pre-processing tool in the realm of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In this lecture, you'll learn about the intricate process of activating and navigating the CFD version of ICEMCFD, including setting up the necessary UI components for a seamless experience. 🌐

Understanding pre-processing is pivotal in CFD, where you'll delve into tasks like geometry creation, mesh generation, and boundary tagging. We've unpacked different mesh generation methods such as structured and unstructured grid generation, ensuring you're prepared to tackle various challenges using the software. 📏

The session also familiarizes you with the ICEMCFD interface, walking you through the menu, utility icons, function tabs, and model tree. Additionally, you'll get insights into managing project files effectively, covering crucial file types like PRJ, TIN, UNS, and BLK—equipping you with all the tools you need for effective project handling and analysis. 📂

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Overview The chapter introduces the lecture series on Anis ICM CFD, a pre-processing software provided by Anis Inc. It highlights the software's extensive capabilities, including mesh generation for CFD and structural solvers, as well as numerous postprocessing functions. The focus of this lecture series will be specifically on the CFD meshing capabilities of the software.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Activating CFD Version and UI Components To activate only the CFD version and its necessary UI components, appropriate product settings are required. Go to the settings menu and select the product submenu to activate the CFD version, including any blocking options. Apply these settings and restart the application. The discussion outline covers the overall tasks involved in pre-processing, followed by an exploration of various shapes supported by a standard CFDis solver.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Understanding Pre-processing In this chapter, various aspects of pre-processing in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using Anis Fluent or Anis CFX are explored. The chapter covers different geometry generation methods and delves into various operations performed in ICM CFD. It describes different UI components and their functions, and examines the files associated with ICM CFD along with their data content. The workflow and data flow within ICM CFD are influenced by the meshing strategy selected. The chapter concludes with discussions on general and specific workflows in a typical meshing process.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Domain Discretization and Boundary Tagging This chapter is focused on understanding the UI of ICM CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and the overall workflow involved. It aims to equip the user with the ability to navigate through the software and locate the necessary functions effectively. The chapter begins by discussing the concept of pre-processing, a fundamental aspect of CFD. This involves understanding the computational dynamics necessary for efficient domain discretization and boundary tagging in CFD applications.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Mesh or Grid Generation Fundamentals The chapter introduces the concept of mesh or grid generation, which is a fundamental aspect of numerical methods used to solve governing equations. Methods such as finite difference, finite element, or finite volume are applied here. These methods involve discretizing the governing equations, whether they are in differential or integral form, to solve them at points, elements, or control volumes (also referred to as cells in the CFD community). This discretization is key for solving equations within a given domain or geometry.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Grid Generation Methods The chapter 'Grid Generation Methods' discusses the process and importance of discretizing domains to facilitate the numerical solving of governing equations. It emphasizes that before solving, the shape and size of the domain must be defined, as this specifies the region where the equations will be applied. Discretization is crucial for applying numerical methods to solve equations effectively within the defined domain.
• 10:00 - 12:00: Overview of ANSYS ICEM CFD The chapter introduces ANSYS ICEM CFD, focusing on setting up appropriate boundary conditions during solver setup. It emphasizes the importance of tagging boundaries, which is critical for accurate analysis. The process involves translating mesh along with all relevant information into a file format that a chosen solver can comprehend. The chapter uses the example of solving the same governing equations in a CFD analysis when the physics of the problem remains constant, illustrating practical application of these concepts.
• 12:00 - 15:00: Geometry Creation and Import The chapter discusses the process of geometry creation and import with a specific focus on analyzing the pressure drop across the inlet and outlet of a duct and a control valve. It addresses the need to solve the incompressible flow of water by using the continuity equation, three momentum equations, and turbulence equations. It highlights the differences in flow features between a duct and a control valve, attributing these differences to the varying boundary conditions applied for each case.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Mesh Generation Process in ICEM CFD This chapter discusses the essentials of setting up boundary conditions in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using ICEM CFD software. It emphasizes the importance of unique boundary conditions defined by the shape, size, and non-flow property values on the boundary. The pre-processing phase in CFD involves generating the geometry and domain derived from CAD data, typically created with CAD software.
• 18:00 - 21:00: ICEM CFD UI Components and Usage The chapter titled "ICEM CFD UI Components and Usage" discusses the geometry modeling features available in ICEM CFD. Due to limited geometry modeling capabilities, ICEM CFD is primarily utilized for creating simple geometries. For complex geometries, a standard CAD software is recommended because it can generate intricate CAD models efficiently. However, this approach has limitations and often requires significant CAD repair. The chapter further describes the process of dividing the domain into smaller parts or subdomains.
• 21:00 - 24:30: Project Files and Management in ICEM CFD The chapter delves into the process and importance of grid generation, also known as mesh generation or domain discretization, in ICEM CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). There are three primary grid generation methods discussed: structured multiblock meshing, Cartesian meshing, and unstructured meshing. Once an appropriate grid is produced, the subsequent task involves applying boundary tags and domain tags. This involves labeling the domain surfaces with appropriate labels.

Introduction to meshing and ANSYS ICEMCFD GUI - Part I Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello everyone and welcome to the lecture series on CBD pre-processing in this series we'll look at Anis ICM cfd a pre-processing software supplied by Anis Inc ICM cfd has vast capabilities including M generation for cfd as well as a structural solvers it also has large number of postprocessing functions in this lecture series we'll focus only on its cfd maching capability to
• 00:30 - 01:00 activate only cfd version and its necessary UI components you need to do appropriate product settings to do so go to settings menu and product submenu activate cfd version along with blocking apply and restart the application this is the outline of our discussion today first we'll look at overall task involved in pre-processing then we'll look at various s shapes supported by standard CF dis solver like
• 01:00 - 01:30 Anis fluent or Anis cfx we'll also look at various good generation methods later in the lecture we'll discuss more about various operations done in ICM cfd then we'll look at different components of UI and their functions we'll also look at various files associated with ICM cfd and their data content work and data flow in ICM cfd depends on Ming strategy selected at the end of the lecture we'll discuss General as well as a specific workflow in a typical maching
• 01:30 - 02:00 requirement after understanding the concepts in this lecture you should be comfortable with UI of ICM cfd and over workflow you should be able to navigate through the software and locate the necessary functions before going into the details of ICM cfdui let's discuss more about what is pre-processing from our cfd fundamental lectures you might have understood that computational Dynamics
• 02:00 - 02:30 is a method of solving governing equations using numerical methods like finite difference finite element or finite volume in all these methods the governing equations either in a differential form or an integral form are discretized and ritten at either a point or for an element or for a control volume control volume is also called as cell in cfd community as the equations are written and solved in discretized form the domain or the geometry in which
• 02:30 - 03:00 the equations are going to be solved also needs to be discretized so to facilitate the solution of governing equations using numerical methods we need to give following domain inputs to the solver the first input is shape and size of the domain this defines the region in which the equations will be solved we then need to discretize the domain as it will be given to the solver solving governing equations in discretized form to identify the domain
• 03:00 - 03:30 boundaries during solver setup we need to give appropriate boundary taggings this is also called as setting up boundary conditions the mesh with all this information is then needs to be written in the file or format understood by a selected solver if physics of the problem is same then in cfd analysis same governing equations are solved let's take a simple example imagine that you want to find
• 03:30 - 04:00 the pressure drop across Inlet and Outlet of a duct and a control valve in both the cases we need to solve for an incompressible flow of a water in this case solution of continuity equation three momentum equations and turbulence equations is required but if you look at the end results you can easily notice that the flu feature is different in duct as that of a control valve this difference is the result of different boundary conditions used for both the
• 04:00 - 04:30 cases so as to result into a unique solution of governing equations we need to give unique boundary conditions the uniqueness of boundary condition is defined by shape size as well as value of nonn flow property on the boundary a typical cfd pre-processing activity involves creating the shape and size of the domain this is generally supplied through a cad data this CAD model is generally created using a c software or
• 04:30 - 05:00 a geometry modeling features available in ICM cfd due to the limited geometry modeling features available in ICM cfd it is mainly used to create a simple geometries in case of complex geometries a standard CAD software is used which can generate complicated CAD model within a short time but this comes with its own limitation and requires considerable card repair the next activity is dividing the domain in small small parts or subdomains this process
• 05:00 - 05:30 is also referred as Mage generation grid generation or domain discretization there are various grid generation methods broadly they are divided into three main categories namely structured multiblock mching cartian mching or unstructured mching method once the correct grid is generated the next activity is putting boundary tags as well as domain tags the boundary tags involves labeling the surfaces of the domain with labels like
• 05:30 - 06:00 Inlet Outlet or a wall the domain tagging involves labeling the volumes with solid or fluid all this information is then exported in a correct file format understood by a cfd solver so to summarize the overall pre-processing activity involves geometry modeling GD generation boundary taggings and mesh export now let's look at the fundamental definition of Grid or mesh
• 06:00 - 06:30 in overall cfd cycle M generation is the most critical and many times a timec consuming process the simplest definition of mesh or grid generation is that it is the process of dividing the domain in small subdomains you can imagine that the smaller subdomain is equivalent to a control volume we have used during the derivation of fluid dynamics and heat transfer equations the small subdomains or volumes are
• 06:30 - 07:00 typically referred as cells or elements in cfd community as discussed before the requirement of grid generation is mainly due to the method of solving the governing equations we use numerical methods like fdm FM or fvm to solve the discretized form of equations this then also demands for discretizing the domain or creating the grid for any cfd engineer or to be very specific for any pre-processing engineer the grid
• 07:00 - 07:30 generation task is divided into two sub activities the first activity involves dividing the surfaces or boundaries of the domain into 2D elements like triangle or quadrilaterals the second task is dividing the volume using shapes like tetrahedral hexahedral pyramids or prisms it is not necessary to use only one type of cell for mhing complete volume in many cases a mes may include combination of all type of elements
• 07:30 - 08:00 to elaborate more on the definition of a grid refer to the figure on right hand side in this case the domain of our interest in which we want to solve the governing equations is the region between two concentric circles for creating the grid we have selected a simple triangular shape for subdomain or a cell after completion of grid generation process the domain is filled with set of triangles the generated grid should follow some governing laws and
• 08:00 - 08:30 should have some critical properties the first important property is that all the triangles should collectively fill the complete domain and there should not be any unmissed region in the domain of Interest the second property is that none of the triangles should intersect with each other all the triangles should be connected to its neighbors at their vertices if you closely observe the grid generated for the region between two concentric circles you can notice that
• 08:30 - 09:00 it follows all these critical properties apart from these properties in order to get good quality solution we should also look at other properties of a mesh this includes quality of a mesh distribution of mesh nodes and its growth ratio and many more later in the lecture series we'll discuss more about different quality criteria one should check before submitting it for the solver there are many governing factors
• 09:00 - 09:30 which decides the shape of the cell one should select for mching the most important factor is that the selected shape should be supported by the solver during the solution of governing equation solver needs to do some mathematical calculations over every cell this includes calculation of properties like volume of a cell surface area of a cell face as well as face normals this is Possible only when solver implementation has specific function for such mathematical
• 09:30 - 10:00 calculations so before selecting any cell type one should always check the types of cells supported by intended cfd solver Anis fluent has support for wide variety of shapes it supports triangles or quadrilateral elements in 2D many times these are referred as Tri or Cod elements in 3D it has support for tetrahedral hexahedral pyramid and prism elements in general tetrahedral and hexahedral elements are referred as Ted
• 10:00 - 10:30 and hex elements a typical mesing activity involves generation of all type of elements Anis fluent also supports non-conformal interfaces between two M regions we'll discuss about generation and treatment of non-conformable mesh later in the course there are many grid generation methods and advancement in various algorithms has enabled creation of high quality grid within small amount of time
• 10:30 - 11:00 all the methods are broadly divided into three categories namely CTI methods structured methods and unstructured methods the structured method is further divided into monolock and multiblock Method there are large number of unstructured grid generation algorithms but the most popular one includes OCT based methods advancing front methods and Delon triangulation methods generally unstructured grid generation method results into TR surface M and T
• 11:00 - 11:30 volume mesh there are certain unstructured methods which can also generate cord as well as hex elements hybrid M generation process involves using more than one meshing method for generating mesh for entire geometry typically a simple region is meshed with hex elements using multiblock approach and a complicated region is mhed with t elements using unstructured approach the two regions are then either merged with a layer of pyramids or combined with a non-confirming till now in the lecture we have seen
• 11:30 - 12:00 basics of pre-processing now let's discuss more about Anis ICM cfd a pre-processing software Anis ICM cfd is a complete and stand alone pre-processing tool for cfd the complete word implies that it does all the operations including geometry creation grid generation boundary tagging as well as export grid to various solvers the Standalone word implies that it does not rely on any
• 12:00 - 12:30 other software inputs for the process to start or end there are certain softwares like ANC grid which needs surface mesh as an input the typical task in ic cfd involves geometry related activities mes related activities boundary taggings and grid export the geometry activity includes both import and repair or geometri creation within ICM cfd Ming activity includes creating the main using various Ming techniques available
• 12:30 - 13:00 in ICM cfd it also includes either automatic or manual repair of generated grid the boundary tagging is also done within ICM cfd for easy solution setup the grid is then exported in various solver formats so to summarize activities in ICM cfd involves geometry creation Mage generation boundary taggings and mes export let's have a look at all these activities in detail
• 13:00 - 13:30 the first task in ICM cfd is geometry creation which defines the shape and size of the domain most of the industrial problem involves complex geometries which are either impossible to generate an ICM cfd or consumes lot of time so the general practice is to use standard CAD softwares to generate the cad model in such cases depending on the format of a cad data available various functions of ICM cfd are used if the model is available in faceted or
• 13:30 - 14:00 triangulated format using faceted data reader the data can be imported in ICM cfd there are various geometry and CAD readers or translators which can import the geometry present in neutral file formats like IGS or step in most of the cases translation operation causes data loss and asks for CAD repair before missing along with above methods it is always possible to use direct CAD interfaces to input the geometry in ICM cfd in case of simple geometry ICM cfd
• 14:00 - 14:30 geometry modeling capabilities can be utilized to create the model various geometry functions available in ICM cfd can also be used for geometry repair in case if it is imported from outside this is the overall geometry operation done in ICM cfd we'll get into the details of every operation during our geometry creation lecture once the geometry is finalized it is followed by Maj generation process let's have a look at the overall task involved in Mage generation
• 14:30 - 15:00 all the grid generation methods available in ICM cfd are divided into two main categories called patch confirm methods and Patch independent methods we'll get into the details of these methods later in the course but at this point of time you can imagine that patch confirm method treats every surface as a patch and creates a g grid on its boundary and then on the patch or the surface in case of a patch independent maching more than one surface can be combined in a patch simply by REM moving in between boundary curve this greatly
• 15:00 - 15:30 simplifies the complicated CAD model form ma as mentioned before all three methods namely CTI based method unstructured method and structured M multiblock methods are available in ICM cfd using all these methods a grid is generated and if necessary is followed by a mesh repair operation in case if quality of grid is not good we can use various me edit tools available in ICM cfd few of the
• 15:30 - 16:00 tools are automatic and few requires manual work edit mesh tools are mainly used in a case when unstructured grid generation methods are used in case of a multi-block structured machine the quality of grid is mainly improved at pre-processing level by modifying the block topology or vertex alignment edit mesh also provides other tools like generating the confirmable interface between two mesh domains extruding the boundary mesh in specified Direction transforming or allying the mesh and
• 16:00 - 16:30 quality checks so overall mesh edit operations are used to improve the quality of a grid once the correct mesh is generated it needs to be written in a format understood by a selected cfd solver the task involves selection of a solver assigning the boundary types and exporting the mesh the available boundary types and mesh format depends on selected solver so this is the process overview of different activities done in ICM cfd
• 16:30 - 17:00 UI of ICM cfd is divided into six components the first component is a main menu located at the top of the UI it has file edit view info and settings menu it also has a help menu which gives access to various help manuals we'll look at all these menus in detail later in the lecture below the main menu various utility icons are present these utility
• 17:00 - 17:30 icons gives access to most frequently used functions in ICM cfd to the right of utility icon various function Tabs are present these function tabs gives access to different functions used in ICM cfd the number of function tabs present depends on the product settings in case if cfd version is activated with blocking you should see only function tab related to Geometry mes blocking
• 17:30 - 18:00 edit mesh and output the current UI shows other function tabs also this is because the default version of ICM cfd is currently active to activate only a cfd version with blocking go to settings products activate cfd version deactivate post processing and card 3D also activate ICM cfd under under a GUI style apply and restart the
• 18:00 - 18:30 software now if you see the necessary cfd function Tabs are available we'll look at the details of all the functions present under each function tab later in the respective lectures the data entry zone is present below to the utility icons the content of the data entry Zone depends on the function selected all the forms which are opened in a data entry Zone will ask
• 18:30 - 19:00 for few text inputs it will have few drop- down list it will also ask for numerical values it contains the command buttons like apply okay or dismiss we'll see the content of every form in detail during the respective function usage model Tre is present below DZ area the components of the model tree depends on the data present in current project in case if only geometry data is present it
• 19:00 - 19:30 will have a tree related to geometry and a tree related to Parts you can always expand the subcomponents of the tree by clicking the plus sign we'll see the details of every component of the model tree later in the lecture major portion of ICM cfds UI is covered by a graphics window Graphics window displays various states of the model you can always use the mouse button to operate on the model displayed in in a graphics window the
• 19:30 - 20:00 display Triad is present at the right bottom corner of Graphics window it contains XY Z axis and a central sphere you can always click on one particular axis symbol to orient the model perpendicular to that axis you can also click on the central sphere to get the isometric view of a model displayed in a graphics window the background of the graphics window can be changed by using settings back ground style and you can
• 20:00 - 20:30 give either a gradient or a solid color let me give a white solid color as a background you can also change the size of the graphics window by click and drag on the vertical as well as horizontal gray lines similarly you can also change the area of the model tree the area of the message window by clicking and dragging on the respective gray lines the message window is present at the bottom of UI which displays various
• 20:30 - 21:00 messages given by ICM cfd it also shows the necessary information in case if any quer is asked to ICM cfd in case of any error or failure of a particular operation the diagnostic message will be displayed in the message window these are various components of ICM cfd UI please take a pause at this moment and browse through the UI and get familiar with various components you can always use the tool tips which you can access
• 21:00 - 21:30 by simply pointing the mouse on respective functions the dynamically linked help is available in every form opened in a DZ area if you click on the question mark on the top right hand corner it will directly open the respective help and give you the necessary information before going into the details of each component of UI let's have a look at files associated with ICM
• 21:30 - 22:00 cfd and its content there are various files associated with one ICM cfd project rather than storing all information in one file ICM cfd uses different files to store different information this multifile structure gives better and faster control on data input output and its usage all the files are stored in one project directory the best practice is to create a project directory and select that as your working directory you can do this by using change working directory submenu
• 22:00 - 22:30 provided in file menu please go and create a project directory and set it as your working directory this working directory is also referred as a project directory the first file associated with ICM cfd is a project file with an extension. prj this file contains various project settings and links to other Associated files during project execution one can select to save all project files or to to save specific file in case if a project file is saved
• 22:30 - 23:00 all Associated files are automatically saved at the later stage if a project file is open all Associated files will be open provided that they are present in same working directory the next file is a geometry file with an extension Tin Tin stands for Tetra inputs the main content of this file is the geometry data it also has information about material points part Association Global as well as local mesh size provided on
• 23:00 - 23:30 the geometrical entities the mesh information is saved in UNS file UNS stands for unstructured mesh this file gets generated when unstructured mesh is created or when the block mesh is projected on the geometry the BLK file contains the block topology this file gets generated only in case if multiblock structured mesh is generated there is a great advantage of giving independent control on this file this allows us to use same blocking file on
• 23:30 - 24:00 various geometries with same topology this helps us during parametric study where a small change in Geometry is done to study its effect on Flow physics the FBC file contains boundary condition information this includes tags as well as type of boundary conditions given the type of boundary condition can be assigned using boundary condition function provided in output function tab the RPL file is a replace script file which is used to store script or
• 24:00 - 24:30 commands for ICM cfd these are various files associated with ICM cfd project