Difference between Mesh independance study and Mesh Sensitivity Study
 

Hello all,

Could you please explain me the difference between the two terminologies, 'Mesh Independence Study' and 'Mesh Sensitivity Study'. To me they seem similar. Can somebody explain this please?

I don't think there is any difference, much like saying what's the difference between a grid and a mesh or a cell and an element, it's just terminology. In lots of cases a mesh independent solution cannot be obtained because either the physics (models) or the available computational resources (very fine meshes required) prohibit a mesh independent solution being obtained. However, one can still, and should, assess the sensitivity of a solution due to the mesh resolution.

I find the terminology mesh independent quite misleading.
Looking close enough at the results, one will always find that the values change when changing the mesh size (provided a non-trivial case).

Maybe one is related to mesh type (hexa, tetra, mixed) and the other to cell size.

Daniele

Flotus is totally right about it. There is no mesh independent solution for any case and in terminology they are used as the same thing with mesh sensitivity study. In any case there will be a discretization error and solution is directly obtained with the meshes so there will be no independence at all. When i was asking something related to mesh sensitivity study to my professor, he warned me about this confusion in terminology and ask me to never use it as mesh independence study.

Hope this helps,

Best