Automatic structure meshing problem
 

Hello~~

I am working on Geometry Optimization based on CFD simulation. I already solved the workflow with unstructured meshing steps. I understand the unstructured meshing is good for automatic generation. But I still want to use the structural mesh to simulation.

I checked all learning materials online, but I cannot found anything. Maybe someone can give me the link?

And I think I can firstly do the structural meshing manually, and I could get the .blk file. The .blk file has the topology information. I think it is possible to input the .blk file by journal file to automatic generate the structural mesh to other cases. Does it possible ? Or someone already did this ?

Thanks for anyone who pay attention to my problem. And also thanks for anyone who can help me

Kind Regards

Jimmy

Hi Jimmy,

loading in the .blk file into a new geometry is possible. However, i remember that i experienced in the past, that the association is very picky on the names of the geometry entities. This means, all geometry entities had to have the same name in order to get a valid blocking. Moreover, the geometry change cannot be to large, because internal vertices are not getting moved (due to the lack of association).

Because i had to do something similar, i started to use the scripting capabilities of ICEM to create the geometry (because my cases allowed it), the blocking and the mesh. The replay feature usually gives records the necessary commands.
With some knowledge of the language tcl you could rework the script to process some parameter.


There are no information freely available i know of which teach the API of ICEM, though i never accessed the customer portal of ANSYS.
In the locally installed help, there is only a brief programming manual for ICEM which states a few pieces of info per available command.

If this approach would be interesting to you, i could share a few samples.

Best,
Sebastian

Dear Sebastian:

Firstly，thanks for your reply. Last time your approach is really help my script in unstructual meshing. Now I can combine grasshopper(rhino plugin)with ANSYS in unstructual meshing.

I am very interesting in your approach, please share the examples. I did Geometry in rhino and I used script（grasshopper plugin） to make geometry and name and output to ANSYS. I found it is very good. Due to I am a Parametric designer in Rhino. I think it is very convenient. But I am not good at structural meshing in ICEM. So I think I can combine your approach with my approach. When it is successful, I will share it with you~~~

Best,
Jimmy

Hi Jimmy,

i see. I have heard many good things about that tool chain, though i did not have a chance to play with it yet.

You may create two individual geometries with your setup and import them into ICEM. That way you can find out whether the geometry names are changing at all, whether they change predictably or not...
If the inherent structure of the geometry and their names is predictable, you might be successful to reuse a previous blocking. And maybe only a few blocking entities would need to be re-associated.

As i indicated before, i ended up doing "everything" in ICEM to get the Mesh.
On my github, i have published some supplementary material for a manuscript i tried/try to publish in a journal.
You'll find a setup to perform a geometry optimization with a number of tools, with ICEM on of them. In the folder IndividualEvaluation, there is a sample evaluation. The interesting bit might be the "in_icem.tcl" script with its companion "in_parameter.tcl". The later are the externalized parameters which are to be used in the geometry creation.

You can run the script by changing the workdirectory of ICEM into that folder and run the "in_icem" script from the menu bar File > Replay Scripts > Run from script file.
after running, you should find the geometry and blocking in the running session as well as the mesh file called "slice.msh"


Anyhow, i have the impression, my approach is not a good one for you...
I had to introduce a lot of contraints in the geometry generation which makes changes to the geometry structure laborous.


In case you want to go down that route, you could send me your email via pm. Then i would share my unfinished manuscript with you which contains an explanation about the design choices. Although it is very specific to my research, it might simplify deciphering my tcl script...

That would be great, i always like to learn how to do things differently.

Best regards,
Sebastian