How to separate two tri meshes with a line
 

Hello everybody,

I have created a 2d tri mesh with a boundary layer using the advanced
BLayer2D option.

The issue is I had to mege two zones of tri meshes to get the prism layer properly (picture 1) and now I want to split them back. The meshes are conformal with the zones boundaries (picture 2).

I guess it is a rather simple question, but I'm not very skillful with unstructured meshes, so how can I separate both meshes by this contour?

Thanks a lot!

Do you have surfaces (2D) between the curves? That really is best practice. If you have surfaces (or can add them now), and your mesh was generated with that curve (as it appears), you can use Edit Mesh > Repair Mesh > Associate Mesh (with geometry). This will put the triangles in the part of the surface they are sitting on.

If you want to use a curve to split a mesh that is not aligned with it, you could convert the mesh to facets, then use the segment surface by curve, then convert the facets back to mesh.

Yes, I have surfaces between the curves so I've followed your first approach. In the Repair mesh menu I've gone to associate mesh with geometry and I've selected the elements inside the surrounding rectangle, in some cases I had to pick them up one by one. Then I've applied, without having to select any geometry.
1) Does it automatically pick the appropiate surface?

I also have some basic questions about unstructured meshes.

2) How can I control the rate at which elements are growing in size?

3) How can I know the minimun resulting element size?

Thanks a lot Simon!

1) it draws a normal vector from the center of the shell element to the nearest surface and assigns it to the same part. You shouldn't have to pic carefully, just box select or select all and let it do its thing...

2) Element growth rate is controlled a few different ways. I assume you are using Patch Conforming, so there are two main options. There is a ratio you can set on the curves, there is a max size you can set on the surface (and then check the global setting to "Adapt mesh interior". These are called "soft" parameters (not strictly enforced, more like goals with quality as a driving criterion).

3) You can use Edit mesh (tab) > Display mesh quality and use a criterion like "Min Side" or "X size". You will get a histogram and the message window will tell you min/max and mean.

Here is what it gave for the little wing I am working on right now. In this case, it is just checking the min size of each element.

Min = 0, max = 11.8006, mean = 0.836419250598
40539 elements with the "Min side" diagnostic
Histogram of Min side values
11.21057 -> 11.8006 : 9 (0.022%)
10.62054 -> 11.21057 : 5 (0.012%)
10.03051 -> 10.62054 : 3 (0.007%)
9.44048 -> 10.03051 : 13 (0.032%)
8.85045 -> 9.44048 : 18 (0.044%)
8.26042 -> 8.85045 : 36 (0.089%)
7.67039 -> 8.26042 : 89 (0.220%)
7.08036 -> 7.67039 : 83 (0.205%)
6.49033 -> 7.08036 : 183 (0.451%)
5.9003 -> 6.49033 : 344 (0.849%)
5.31027 -> 5.9003 : 203 (0.501%)
4.72024 -> 5.31027 : 353 (0.871%)
4.13021 -> 4.72024 : 469 (1.157%)
3.54018 -> 4.13021 : 452 (1.115%)
2.95015 -> 3.54018 : 474 (1.169%)
2.36012 -> 2.95015 : 748 (1.845%)
1.77009 -> 2.36012 : 1329 (3.278%)
1.18006 -> 1.77009 : 3040 (7.499%)
0.59003 -> 1.18006 : 6178 (15.240%)
0.0 -> 0.59003 : 26510 (65.394%)

1) Ok

2) I am using patch independent. I don't know why patch dependent fails whenever I try to use it (see attached picture). What can be wrong in my patch conforming setup?
Would you recommend patch dependent or independent for simple cases like this?
What I use to control the element size is to specify the max size at surfaces, and to select the number of divisions in the curves. But this doesn't control the growth rate, and I find it to be quite fast.
You say I can control the growth rate selecting a ratio on the curves? What is its name? Is it in the setup curve mesh menu or the curve mesh?

3) Ok

I would try hybrid mesh...

It is for a moving mesh, that's why I've chosen a tri mesh.
Can I use an hex mesh in a moving mesh zone?

Following your advice, Far, I'm trying with a hybrid mesh.
I've donde the tutorial Hybrid Tube which is 3D, but I'm finding some difficulties in my 2D case.

I've made a central rectangle for the tri mesh, and surrounding this one 8 rectangles for the hex blocks (see picture). The thing is that even if I choose just the central rectangle for the tri mesh everything get tri-meshed!
In the tutorial a material point is created to choose the zone to be meshed, should I do the same for 2D and create a mass point?

Which are your steps to create a 2D hybrid mesh?

Thanks!

Take a look on this tutorial

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/..._2dairfoil.rar

For moving mesh, I always choose the tri mesh, where i know mesh is going to be deformed. However in limited area (boundary layer), I would use hexa and merge it with tetra.

Far, how do you make meshing conforming in curves separating unstructured from structured? By chosing the same number of divisions?
I'm interested in a way to make this curves conformal once the tri and quad meshes are done.
In the tutorial Hybrid_Pipe this is made by selecting Edit mesh tab, then merge nodes and then merge meshes. However this procedure looks to be for volume meshes. How can I do that for 2d meshes?

As I posted previously, I'm not able to use the patch conforming method. Which are the steps to correctly accomplish it?

Thanks a lot.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Set sizes on curves

2. generate hexa mesh

3. Set shell mesh parameters with "respect line elements"

4. Generate tri mesh (patch dependent)

5. Do the steps as described in the pdf and word files.

This is not giving result for me.
Hexa mesh goes all right, then I select patch dependent mesh with respect to line elements, and specify max size on the surface to be tet-meshed. I've tried specifying curve divisions too and not doing so, both were the same. As usual patch dependent is a disaster (picture 1), I don't know why this is happening. There must be a simple step I am skipping.
I've also tried the patch independent approach, mesh is fine this time, but it doesn't match the hex mesh in the curves (picture 2). Why?
What can I do to get a hybrid mesh?

Following carefully the tutorial and using its own files that's what happens when I execute the patch conformal mesh: