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-   -   [ICEM] Wing Woes. Difficult geometry,(or inept user) Swept and tapered 3d wing (https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ansys-meshing/117524-wing-woes-difficult-geometry-inept-user-swept-tapered-3d-wing.html)

ShowponyStuart May 10, 2013 00:16

Wing Woes. Difficult geometry,(or inept user) Swept and tapered 3d wing
 
Hey all,

I have been trying to mesh a 3D wing in ICEM using diamonddx's youtube vid as a guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0XpZpmOG_g

I must not have wrapped my head around ICEM as much as I thought because I am still having difficulty getting it to mesh at all (let alone actually get a good quality mesh)


Here is the general wing layout
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1428/06wing.png

This pic is the side view (looking from the outside). You can see something weird seems to be happening there.
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/9...chedtowall.png

The blocking strategy around the wing
http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/8...alblocking.png

Im not quite sure if im on the right track, but need to fix a couple of things or if I should scrap it and start from scratch.
Does anyone have any thoughts?

I have attached my files below for anyone to have a look at if they are interested.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tetojb7p2o...%20%283%29.zip
Geometry files
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ja1xc8vf29...r_geometry.zip

And some more pictures too
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbf1u8jctp..._size_pics.zip

Edit:
Latest files
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c972geny1f...oa_mach5_5.zip

ShowponyStuart May 10, 2013 00:44

I should note that the wingtip is modeled as a *small aerofoil section (see pic). It doesn't taper down all the way. I did this for 2 reasons, the first being I wasn't entirely sure how to get it to taper cleanly in Proe and secondly, I thought having the edges would help with letting me associate stuff to the tip.

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/2796/09wingtip.png

Also note, the mesh is very rough as I have been just trying to get it to work. I had planned on refining later on.

ShowponyStuart May 10, 2013 02:25

3 Attachment(s)
Alright I got mesh to behave a lot nicer. But I still feel that it is of questionable quality(even when I refine it). So Im not sure if anyone has any thoughts on my mesh.

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/485/completemesh.png


For anyone else looking into this, all I did was follow the method in the youtube vid all the way to the end. Then I did the following to get it to start playing nice.
1. Deleted all blocks that were sitting inside the wing (pic1) should be 11 blocks to delete
2. Create iso curves (pic2)
3. Associated the corresponding curves to edges (pic3)
As simple as that. (I hate when I problem is simple but it still takes you ages to figure out lol)

FJSJ May 10, 2013 02:25

1 Attachment(s)
Hi Stuart. Sometimes I have the same error. Look at the picture. This time diamondx told me I should prove "Associate Face to Surface" tool. I say you this because I´ve seen your second pic. Try to do that in this area.

FJSJ May 10, 2013 02:29

You got it :)

ShowponyStuart May 10, 2013 06:27

Does anyone know how I can make the mesh around the leading edge more square so it all flows together nicely? Or is it always going to do that because of the way its blocked?
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/9...aroundwing.png

I am trying to keep the mesh smooth and keep the elements orientated correctly with respect to the flow but Im starting to thing that this blocking strategy was the wrong approach. How should I go about tidying up that blocking? Any tips or hints.

Latest files too.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oaha2s05mr...er_mach2_1.zip

stuart23 May 10, 2013 09:47

Stuart (2),

Great work so far, although I am slightly worried what happens at your wingtip.

My advice (contrary to diamonds excellent tutorial. Sorry mate!) would be to wrap the O-Grid around the wing tip rather than propagating it to the extent of the domain.

Good Luck,

Stu

ShowponyStuart May 10, 2013 10:20

Hey Stu...well I guess you are Stu(1) seeing as you got in first :p

I absolutely agree with you, ive been staring at all those blocks for ages trying to figure out what to do with them.

So far I have made it to this stage
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/485/completemesh.png

Im not sure the best way to show you the tip, but investigating it....it kinda looks acceptable. But it wouldnt be a surprise in the slightest if it is completely rubbish and I just havent found a way to look at it.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5181/tipblocking.png

Ive been staring at this block mayhem for hours now trying to work out something better. Unfortunatly this is only the second thing I have tried meshing in ICEM so far, and I still havent figured out how the blocking actually works yet haha.
http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/8...alblocking.png

If you have any ideas on how to salvage that...or if neccecary I could start from scratch (less preferred, but I want to do it right to be honest.) Here are my latest files anyways if you want a look. Be nice though, im still very...uhh special, when it comes to ICEM. haha
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ald6fjw3dz...%20%282%29.zip

Far May 10, 2013 13:24

Stuart23: I agree with your idea about o-grid around wing instead of taking it into the farfield. That approach is well suited to flat tips with almost same order of chord length at tip. :D

Stuart: I am afraid, you will have to go back and make the new geometry without tip airfoil. sorry for home work ;) :p

You have sharp TE, collapse blocks behind TE.

PS: Now we have two Stuarts, hoping Stuart junior shall be as good as Stuart Senior. :)

I will take a look on files ...

ShowponyStuart May 10, 2013 13:59

I'll revisit my model see if I cant tidy that edge up, but if I do end up doing that way, is there a guide or something I can use? Im still pretty useless atm ( I may not have the skills of Stu Senior but I have perseverance. I dont like to be beaten by a program :p :D I would do well in the Tron universe. hehe)

But as it stands I wouldn't know where to start with that approach..I'll do a bit of googling though and see what I can come up with. Hopefully I find something useful. I'm running short on time for this one though, so if I cant get it solved soon (*verry soon) I will have to abandon it for now otherwise the rest of the project will go down the drain as well.


If I do figure it out, ill make up a guide for full on beginners seeing as wings seem to be a pretty popular....On that note, I have come across little guides that people done here and there. Perhaps the best of these should become stickies (or put in their own section) so people can find them easily. Just a thought.

Far May 10, 2013 14:28

Quote:

If I do figure it out, ill make up a guide for full on beginners seeing as wings seem to be a pretty popular....On that note, I have come across little guides that people done here and there. Perhaps the best of these should become stickies (or put in their own section) so people can find them easily. Just a thought.
Can you show those threads or some other links which can be combined together?

ShowponyStuart May 11, 2013 01:52

Ill keep tabs on them. At the moment Im flat out getting trying to get this done, but soon as I get a breather I will try to find and collate some of the stuff (that way I can do it properly).

For now though, I cant figure out how to wrap an Ogrid around the tip like so the blocks dont propagating through the whole domain. I kind of dont get how you could actually do that, as how do all the small complicated blocks around the wing connect to a big simple block sitting next to it? (unless of course I am misunderstanding what you mean...which is quite likely haha)

I dont suppose anyone would want to knock up a tutorial quickly on it :D ...its one of those tutorials that would be helpful to heaps of people (I cant find any tutorials on 3D swept and tapered wings)

Or at least point me in the right direction.... I'm pretty stuck and running out of time. Any help would be immensely appreciated. Plus I plan to give back to the cfd-online community too, so that can only be a good thing :D

Far May 11, 2013 03:00

These are the ICEM CFD files for DLR F6 for DPW2 and probably done by The Simon. Wonderful blocking.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/68746918/DPW2.zip

PS: At the moment I am recording tut on turbomachinery meshing. The purpose is to make the mesh (Full Hexa) from simple CAD model and within 30 minutes. I have in mind the tut on this geometry as well.

http://imageshack.us/a/img844/7038/dlrf62.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img812/7585/dlrf6.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img191/3323/dlrf62001.jpg

ShowponyStuart May 11, 2013 05:01

That is a seriously nice mesh. That blocking is great, its more or less what I had pictured in my mind, but I just cant figure out how to execute it.

Im going to see if I can copy the way he has done it.....not holding my breath though. Is it possible to do what he has done but with a sharp trailing edge and curved leading and trailing edges?

diamondx May 11, 2013 17:17

blockings of wing can be approached in many ways... that blocking was not great i should remove that video. instead i follow simon's 2d version , and apply it to a 3d geometry...

Far May 11, 2013 20:22

Ali :

Your blocking around the wing resembles to the Simon's blocking. The main problem is how to handle the 3d wind with finite thickness (wing tip blocking).

diamondx May 11, 2013 20:32

i will project everything til the far field

ShowponyStuart May 12, 2013 01:12

Hi diamondx, I agree with FAR that your blocking is not that bad for 3D wings that are a straight extrude but for wings are swept and tapered the blocking around the tip needs more work to keep it clean.

Even if you could still use similar blocking but then transition to a big block (like in the DLR F6 FAR posted earlier) it would be a lot cleaner and you wouldnt be getting any weirdly orientated or sized elements in the farfield region.

Its obviously doable, but Im just not sure how to go about it.

ShowponyStuart May 12, 2013 01:56

Just found out I have bigger problems then just my tip blocking.
This the pressure contour at about 1 back from the wing
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8463/screwedmesh.png

This is the front view of a swirling strength isosurface plot (wing is middle of right hand size)
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8...icityfront.png

Top view of swirling strength isosurface plot
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/5...rticitytop.png

Not sure whats going on there but that simulation was with this mesh
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tetojb7p2o...%20%283%29.zip

(SST with gamma-theta transitional turbulence)

If I cant get this sorted out within the next day or so Im going to have to abandon it.

Far May 12, 2013 02:06

Go to o-grid tab and select all blocks inside the wing and click on apply. You will get o-grid around the wing.

Edit: Don't look at the results at the moment, they may be misleading. Only concentrate on good mesh and getting good convergence.

ShowponyStuart May 12, 2013 02:21

I already did an o-grid around this wing (like in the vid)? Plus I have deleted the blocks inside the wing.

Far May 12, 2013 02:24

When you select the blocks inside the wind for o-grid generation, do not select any face.

ShowponyStuart May 12, 2013 02:35

I will give that a go, but I am still trying to figure out why I got those weird results I mention earlier.

There is nothing i this area so i figure it has to be an artifact of the mesh. And its in one of the big blocks in the farfield, I would have been less surprised if it had happened where there was heaps of blocks (inline with the wing but towards the wall opposite the one the wing is attatched too)

So yeah, im real confused.

Far May 12, 2013 02:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShowponyStuart (Post 426958)
I will give that a go, but I am still trying to figure out why I got those weird results I mention earlier.

There is nothing i this area so i figure it has to be an artifact of the mesh. And its in one of the big blocks in the farfield, I would have been less surprised if it had happened where there was heaps of blocks (inline with the wing but towards the wall opposite the one the wing is attatched too)

So yeah, im real confused.

Observing flow field without number (cl, cd or whatever variable) will confuse you. Before getting a decent simulation (acceptable mesh, acceptable parameters and convergence) observing merely flow field will mislead you.

At the moment you task should be to get a good mesh. Even after getting numbers I do not look on flow field unless necessary to find reason for some change in data set.

ShowponyStuart May 12, 2013 02:53

I did monitor my cl and cd and while they were roughly in the region I expected them they were not converging as nicely (werent particularly stable)

But the reason I pointed that out, is that there is something wrong with my mesh in the region I thought was good quality. Its almost like there is some solid object or something in that region (looking at streamlines shows them moving around "something"). So im not sure if there are some solid elements that I generated in my mesh by accident or something

So I agree with you completely, Im just trying to figure out why the mesh quality is poor in those areas.

Far May 12, 2013 02:59

wrong mesh in one area may give you problem area in other region as numerical error is accumulating (numerical diffusion etc) due to wrong calculation of flux, thats why I saying do not monitor flow field at the moment. It does not mean you never look on flow field ;).

Once your mesh is good, most of the problems will go away, believe me :). Just put hard work on mesh, as it is the first step to successful simulation.

ShowponyStuart May 12, 2013 05:15

Again I cant fault your logic, and I agree with you completely. :D I just get a bit flighty sometimes when things arent going right, even if I know im doing the right thing haha.

I think Ive made a small breakthrough with the blocking (given your pointer before.) With any luck I will be back with good news soon.

Far May 12, 2013 08:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShowponyStuart (Post 426974)
Again I cant fault your logic, and I agree with you completely. :D I just get a bit flighty sometimes when things arent going right, even if I know im doing the right thing haha.

I think Ive made a small breakthrough with the blocking (given your pointer before.) With any luck I will be back with good news soon.

After several years in CFD field (that does not make me expert to give advises :D but I still do ;)) once your mesh is getting right, your simulation work will make progress at very high pace. During meshing time is flying and one is not making any progress (apparently). Another advantage is that, this experience will help you in next projects, so keep it up and I hope you will get things done.

In meshing (specially blocking) the approach should always be to : one step back and two steps forward instead One step forward, two steps back. (I am in no way a philosopher :cool:). So abandon old blocking and start from scratch and start to build up things and avoid previous mistakes. Also keep in mind the blocking I have attached (DWP2 made by Simon)

Far May 12, 2013 08:51

Just take a look at following threads. It took him around two months or so to get good blocking and mesh (even more as his case very highly complicated but he done it). Really impressive work.

http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ans...w-winglet.html

http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ans...w-winglet.html

ShowponyStuart May 12, 2013 22:01

Havent had a chance to read through those links yet (will do that now) but this is my latest attempt. I think that while the blocking is getting closer to what it should be, there are still a lot of problems.

http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/2...ipblocking.png

My latest files too.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kyykrrqayg...4AOA_mach4.zip

ShowponyStuart May 13, 2013 06:28

Arghhh...Im about ready to give up.

It was all going good...Reasonably nice mesh you say?
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/4526/arghgh1.png

..hey that blocking looks reasonably tidy, you might get a mesh with reasonable quality...
http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/4095/arggghh2.png


Well if you thought that you would be wrong (as was I).
http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/120/arghgh3.png

Just thought I was starting to wrap my head around it a bit, but apparently not.
Im going to have to call it quits soon. I could be working on this until after the project is due for all I know. Unless I am hit with some epiphany, or some assurance I can reliably build the mesh quickly by the end of the week, I dont want to waste any more time chasing my tail.

My last set of files for anyone interested
https://www.dropbox.com/s/28fmx3oyyq...OA_mach5_2.zip

ShowponyStuart May 13, 2013 07:53

Is it possible that it is some sort of connectivity issue or something? Or possible due to the way I created the O-grid. (Just selected the wing block and no faces like far suggested.) Perhaps I needed to select the face where the wing connects to the wall?

ShowponyStuart May 15, 2013 03:52

Does anyone have an idea of what is going wrong here? Ive been doing some googling and stuff and still cant quite figure out what is wrong. I have the impression that its only a small problem, and if I can get it fixed, my mesh should come together nicely.

It is telling me that the highlighted block is the worst block, though perhaps it is a couple of the outlet blocks that is causing an issue.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2618/badblock.png

This is what happens with the outlet mesh. Perhaps some sort of connectivity or association issue??
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6...ewedoutlet.png

And there doesnt seem to be a problem with any of the other sides, just when I select the outlet.
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/4...blocksfine.png

So does anyone have any thoughts on this, im pretty stuck and could use some input.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/28fmx3oyyq...OA_mach5_2.zip

FJSJ May 15, 2013 07:18

I´ve just used the "associate edge to surface" tool and "associate face to surface" tool to resolve your problem in your outlet part.

However, I´ve checked your quality determinant 3x3x3 and I think I´ve seen bad elements...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/63go4kbobm...OA_mach5_2.rar

ShowponyStuart May 20, 2013 04:58

I missed this that last post somehow but thanks for that FJSJ. It seemed to work a treat.

I played around a bit and got the quality up. I got pretty much all the elements above 0.9 for the 3x3x3 determinate, though there are are couple of sketchy elements at the trailing edge mostly (and a handful at the wing tip)
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/655/3by3det.png

Problem is now I am getting this weird error when I go to import my mesh into CFX. And it wont load up any of the domains or anything. I have tried renumbering the mesh and creating new parts in attempt to fix the issue but I havent been sucessful yet.
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3329/argha.png

Im so close to being able to run a sim that I can taste it, but have been beaten again! Does anyone have any ideas?

latest files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c972geny1f...oa_mach5_5.zip

ShowponyStuart May 20, 2013 20:06

No one has any thoughts on how to fix this error?


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