By Mr. Summit Maloo
Different organizations and researchers develop number of software for mesh generation. Some of them can generate meshes for two-dimensional domains, some for three-dimensional. Most of the software has particular methodology to generate mesh and some uses a combination of methodologies. Features and capabilities of some of the commercially available software are discussed in the following sections of this chapter. Information of other software used fro mesh generation can be gathered from Ref. [1], [2].
The ANSYS product line includes applications for structural, thermal,
mechanical, CFD, electromagnetic analysis and transient impact analysis. ANSYS
software solves for the combined effects of multiple forces, accurately modeling
combined behaviors resulting from “multi-physics” interactions. The software
also features advanced nonlinear material simulation.
Capabilities: Triangular, Surface meshes, Quadrilateral, Tetrahedral, 3D
structured.
The CUBIT mesh generation/grid generation environment is a two and three
dimensional finite element mesh generation tool, which is being developed to
pursue the goal of robust and unattended mesh generation effectively automating
the generation of quadrilateral and hexahedral elements. It is a solid-
modeler based preprocessor that meshes volume and surface solid models for
finite element analysis. A combination of techniques including paving, mapping,
sweeping and various other algorithms is being developed and are available for
discretizing the geometry into a finite element mesh.
GAMBIT has a single interface for geometry creation and meshing that brings together all of Fluent’s preprocessing technologies in one environment. It can import geometry from virtually any CAD/CAE software in Parasolid, ACIS, STEP, IGES or STL format. Its meshing toolkit allows decomposing geometries for structured hex meshing or performing automated hex meshing with control over clustering. Triangular surface meshes and tetrahedral volume meshes can be created within a single environment, along with pyramids and prisms for hybrid meshing.
Gridgen is the interactive, graphically oriented software system for the
generation of 3D grids. The system consists of two codes – interactive Gridgen
and batch Geidgen3D.
Capabilities: Quadrilateral, Hexahedral, Triangular, Tetrahedral, Mapped meshes,
Hybrid meshes including prisms and pyramids, Single and multiple blocks,
Abutting or overlapping block interfaces, two and three dimensional blocks.
GridPro is an automatic object oriented multi-block grid generator based upon a powerful topology engine. It provides ease of use, high quality, rapid generation and modular parametric design. A unique dynamic 3D graphic environment (az-Manager) provides users with an extremely efficient interactive capability to build topology, edit surfaces, set CFD boundary conditions, and to view multi-block grids. Organization is given by the topology input language (TIL) for which cases can be compiled and executed from the graphical environment, without even seeing the TIL code. Each TIL code provides a broad range of parametric design variations for new surface shapes and positions. This stems from topology, which gives grid point patterns without regard to precise spatial positions or the details of surface definitions. Modular parametric design comes from the sub-program structure of TIL where a model can also be changed by feature addition, subtraction, duplication, relocation, etc.
HEXAR is a set of programs that can change computer-aided design (CAD) object surface description files into hexahedral volume meshes. It generates unstructured mesh geometry that is suitable for use with many CFD and FEA programs. HEXAR greatly accelerates the meshing process by eliminating most of the handicraft associates with traditional mesh generation methods.
ICEM CFD Hexa automatically generates the grid with or without projection to the CAD/STL geometry. By default, Hexa projects all nodes of the block faces between different materials to the CAD/STL surfaces. Thus, the so-called surface/sub-faces associations are automatic. By means of ICEM CFD one can generate multi-block structured hexahedral grids of any type of topology (H-grids, O-grids, C-grids) and can automatically convert the multi-block structured grid into unstructured format.
I-DEAS is a scalable, integrated, CAD/CAM/CAE solution that allows the user to design new products by leveraging the Internet. I-DEAS provides the type of communication environment that leads to greater product innovation. Master FEM provides complete standalone finite element modeling with all the benefits of an integrated CAE system, including complete model associability.