Mesh thin layer of solid cell for conduction
 

I am modeling the solar load to the ground and heat conduction to the ground. Solar load model is used and a thin layer of solid cell is meshed to represent the ground. the domain size is about z = 500m, x = y =1000m; the ground thickness is 2m.

the meshing is very difficult since the ground is very thin and the domain is large. Do anyone have idea how to do this kind of mesh? a simple answer would be appreciated.

i want to mesh sth like the shell conduction option in fluent. but shell conduction option in fluent only solve 1-D. i want to solve the conduction in 3-D.

Extrude
 

As far as meshing goes, I would probably extrude the shells along the ground to make the thin layer of volume elements...

Is this suggestion a bit late?

Yes. what you suggest is what i want to do. However, in the icem tutorial set. i hardly find a tutorial talking about how to extrude the ground cell!!

thin solid meshing
 

hi ,ying

in ansys meshing, you can sweep your thin solid, if you needs documents,
i can share some with you. i just get them through net.

Hi Mr wang, could you also send me the tutorials ? my email is davidshaw007@hotmail.com, thank you !

But Mr wangguobin,

Do you know how to add inflation layers in the sweep method, and is there any formula to define the thickness of the inflation?

Use ICEM HEXA Mesh
 

You can use hexa mesh option to make hexahedral elements of any thickness.