Mesh generation

From CFD-Wiki

Introduction

The partial differential equations that governs fluid flow and heat transfer are not usually amenable to analytical solutions, except for very simple cases. Therefore, in order to analyze fluid flows, flow domains are split into smaller subdomains (made up of geometric primitives like hexahedra and tatrahedra in 3D, and quadrilaterals and triangles in 2D) and discretized governing equations are solved inside each of these portions of the domain. Typically, one of three methods is used to solve the approximate version of the system of equations: finite volumes, finite elements, or finite differences. Care must taken to ensure proper continuity of solution across the common interfaces between two subdomains, so that the approximate solutions inside various portions can be put together to give a complete picture of fluid flow in the entire domain. Each of these portions of the domain are known as elements or cells, and the collection of all elements is known as mesh or grid. The origin of the term mesh (or grid) goes back to early days of CFD when most analyses were 2D in nature. For 2D analysis, a domain split into elements resembles a wire mesh, hence the name.

An example of a 2D analysis domain (flow over a backward facing step) and its mesh are shown in pictures below.

The process of obtaining an appropriate mesh (or grid) is termed mesh generation (or grid generation), and has long been considered a bottleneck in the analysis process due to the lack of a fully automatic mesh generation procedure. Specialized software progams have been developed for the purpose of mesh and grid generation, and access to a good software package and expertise in using this software are vital to the success of a modeling effort.

Mesh classification

As CFD has developed, better algorithms and more computational power has become available to CFD analysts, resulting in diverse solver techniques. One of the direct results of this development has been the expansion of available mesh elements and mesh connectivity (how cells are connected to one another). The elements in a mesh can be classified in various ways - the easiest is based upon the dimension and type of the elements. Common elements in 2D are triangles or rectangles, and common elements in 3D are tetrahedra or bricks. The most basic form of mesh classification is based upon the connectivity of the mesh: structured or unstructured.

Structured Meshes

A structured mesh is characterized by regular connectivity that can be expressed as a two or three dimensional array. This restricts the element choices to quadrilaterals in 2D or hexahedra in 3D. The above example mesh is a structured mesh, as we could store the mesh connectivity in a 40 by 12 array. The regularity of the connectivity allows us to conserve space since neighborhood relationships are defined by the storage arrangement. Additional classification can be made upon whether the mesh is conformal or not.

Unstructured Meshes

An unstructured mesh is characterized by irregular connectivity is not readily expressed as a two or three dimensional array in computer memory. This allows for any possible element that a solver might be able to use. Compared to structured meshes, the storage requirements for an unstructured mesh can be substantially larger since the neighborhood connectivity must be explicitly stored.