ANSYS ICEM Meshing Tools

Meshing is an integral part of the CAE analysis process. The mesh influences the accuracy, convergence and speed of the solution. More importantly, the time it takes to create a mesh model is often a significant portion of the time it takes to get results from a CAE solution. Therefore, the better and more automated the meshing tools, the better the solution.

From automatic meshing to highly crafted mesh, ANSYS, Inc. provides the ultimate meshing solution. ANSYS provides powerful pre- and post-processing tools for mesh generation from any geometry source, to produce almost any element type, for nearly any physics, for virtually any application.

From CAD to mesh generation for analysis, ANSYS ICEM CFD provides sophisticated geometry acquisition, mesh generation, post-processing, and mesh optimization tools. ANSYS ICEM CFD is the only Universal pre-processor for analysis including FEA, CFD and other CAE applications such as particle transport and computational electro-magnetics. Used for engineering applications such as computational fluid dynamics and structural analysis, ANSYS ICEM CFD's mesh generation tools offer the capability to parametrically create grids from geometry in multi-block structured, unstructured hexahedral, tetrahedral, hybrid grids consisting of hexahedral, tetrahedral, pyramidal and prismatic cells; and Cartesian grid formats combined with boundary conditions.

Key Features:

Intuitive built-in geometry creation and highly automated functionality for the modification and repair of imported CAD data
Ability to work with both NURBs and faceted geometry types like STL or existing meshes
Robust tools for creating all mesh types: hexahedral, tetrahedral, prism, pyramid, quad, tri or bar elements
Highly tolerant of imperfect/overdetailed CAD data containing sliver surfaces, gaps, holes and overlaps
Smoothing, coarsening, refinement, element type conversion, linear or quadratic element support
More than 100 CFD/CAE solver interface formats
File based transfer of CFD and structural results for Fluid structure interaction simulations
Automated batch processing through an intuitive scripting framework

Now, engineers and analysts have to learn only one software environment to pre-process as well as post-process for the many analysis codes often in use within a work environment.

Direct CAD Interfaces

A key component of the productivity savings from utilizing ICEM CFD is due to the industry unique Direct CAD Interfaces. Presently available for CATIA, CADDS5, ICEM Surf/DDN, I-DEAS, SolidWorks, Solid Edge, Pro/ENGINEER and Unigraphics, ICEM CFD's Direct CAD Interfaces enable the CAD model to be transferred directly into ICEM CFD, without requiring cleanup of third-party formats such as STEP/IGES, ACIS, PARASOLID, DXF, STL etc. Through the Direct CAD Interfaces, boundary conditions and grid size specifications can be applied in the CAD system, and carried all the way through to the solver. Parametric modeling is greatly simplified as this information is preserved with the original CAD model, even throughout design modifications.

Complete Meshing Suite

ANSYS ICEM CFD's highly automated mesh generation tools cater to virtually all topologies including all hexahedral, all tetrahedral, hybrid hex/tet element meshes, or Cartesian meshes. Additional elements that can be generated include prism and pyramid cells.

Images courtesy of Aletheon Division of Pratt & Miller, New Hudson, Michigan

ICEM CFD Hexa CAA V5: Hexahedral Volume Meshing within CATIA V5

This application allows the user to create Hexahedral volume meshes within CATIA V5. The ICEM CFD Hexa Topology and mesh parameters are defined with the ICEM CFD toolbar. These meshing specifications and the resulting ICEM CFD Hexa mesh are stored within the CATIA V5 Analysis document. Users can make changes to the original design and the mesh can be regenerated based on the stored mesh set-up data.

Post-Processing

A state of the art post- processing and visualization module, ICEM CFD Visual3, provides the CFD professional with easy-to-use powerful result visualization features for structured, unstructured, and hybrid grids. ICEM CFD Visual3 provides an in depth view of data with visualization tools such as cutting planes, contouring, iso-surfaces, streamlines, line plots, data probes and animation. Features such as a CFD function calculator and an intuitive based user interface make ICEM CFD Visual3 a powerful interpretation tool of computed results. The ANSYS ICEM CFD Visual3 is a flexible and customizable post-processor that interfaces with all the major CFD/CAE solvers.

Examples

Mesh for Eurocopter used to demonstrate laminar to turbulent flow transition. Image Courtesy of Eurocopter.

Mesh generated by ICEM consisting of a Hybrid-Grid with 480.000 Nodes, 350.000 Wedge-Elements, and 1.600.000 Tet-Elements. This is a test case for CFX-5.4 parallel performance. The calculations account for the following: - Rotating wheels (through command language) - Moving floor (50km/h)

Click here to see online ANSYS meshing demonstrations for FEA and CFD

LEAP and ANSYS

It's a lot to describe in one web page! LEAP has been working with ANSYS since we started and have built extensive experience through using, training, selling and providing technical support for all ANSYS products. It is used in a wide range of industries in Australia and around the world, with local uses including:

Product and Industrial Design
Biomedical
Automotive
Civil infrastructure
Aerospace
Universities
Defence

We strongly believe it sets the standard in engineering simulation - get in touch with us to discuss how it could help solve your engineering problems.

Do you have a requirement for high end mesh generation? Does your mesh generation take too long?

We invite you to experience an online presentation of our latest mesh generation software. You can select your industry sector and if your interest is CFD or FEA and a custom presentation will be shown with streaming real time movies with full audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . click here to enter the Demo Room.