Converting a scanned surface to a mesh
 

Hi,

I have a scanned surface as seen in the image below. I'd like to use this in OpenFOAM. I'd like examine how fluid flows over this surface, so I think the easiest way might be to have this become the roof of a pipe segment, with the walls and floor as simple straight boundaries that are no stick.

I collected the data as a point cloud with a scanner and then meshed it using 3rd party software. I have the CAELinux Virtual Machine so I can pass it through Engrid or gmsh or some other tools. I am seeking advice about which tool or workflow would be the best to modify the surface to become part of a pipe.

Thanks,

-k.

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/...psa3b2c241.jpg

Hi Ken,

If you use Google:
you'll find a few threads on this topic ;)

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe this thread might be the best on this topic: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...tml#post260727

By the way, the advantage of using snappyHexMesh is that you do not need to create a tube, you can use a box and made directly with blockMesh.
In addition, you might want to look into the following add-ons for Blender:

• http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib/SwiftBlock
• http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Contrib/SwiftSnap

Best regards,
Bruno

PS: for other readers, enGrid's related question has been answered here: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/eng...tml#post409829

Hi Bruno,

Thank you for your reply. Sorry for my delay, I was on vacation last week. I'll let the other EnGrid thread die out and continue here, since I am not using EnGrid.

I figured out to just use blockMesh and snappyHexMesh as you suggested, although I ended up figuring this out by using discretizer and the video tutorials on that website.

Regards,

Ken Mankoff