Pre Inlation in ICEM Error
 

Hi,
i am trying to use the Pre Inflation (Fluent Meshing) method to generate a prism layer.
For this i first generate an all tri, patch dependent surface mesh.
When i go to start the Pre Inflation i get the following:

Running Fluent Meshing with Pre Inflation via the FieldMesher-Python-ExtensionModule...
Writing domain "___temp13688___.uns" ...
Done saving domain file.
Writing tetin file ___temp13688___.tin ...
Done saving tetin file.
"C:/PROGRA~1/ANSYSI~1/v182/icemcfd/WIN64_~1/../../commonfiles/CPython/2_7_13/winx64/Release/python/python.exe" "C:/PROGRA~1/ANSYSI~1/v182/icemcfd/WIN64_~1/../../commonfiles/CPython/2_7_13/winx64/Release/Ansys/ICEMCFD/FieldMesherController.py"
child process exited abnormally
ERROR: Import mesh failed
No prism mesh generated!

This happens everytime, even on the simplest geometries.

Does this happen to anyone else? How do i fix this?
I am using ICEM CFD 18.2 from the Ansys Workbench 18.2.


Thanks a lot!

- Does this also happen if you run ICEM outside WB?
- Does ICEM work properly if you work the other way around? Meaning first volume and then inflation, i.e. Post inflation. (I never use pre inflation).
- I remember there was a bug in an old ICEM version in this particular menu. Not sure if it was 18.2. But I had to click the button post and pre inflation twice vice versa before it would do the pre inflation. If I didn't do these odd mouse clicks, it wouldn't work as expected. It had something to do with kind of intialisation of the software behind the screen. Please try, if you haven't done this before.
- Use a newer version. 18.2 is pretty old.

- Yes, it happens even outside of WB.
- Yes, post inflation works, but i am required to use pre inflation.
- I did not notice this GUI bug.

I think i found the problem. While i was working in ICEM, i was not able to open Fluent Meshing at the same time due to licensing issues. Now I run ICEM with the Mechanical Enterprise license, so that Fluent Meshing can use the CFD-PrepPost license.
Everything works fine now.

In all my years of using ICEM CFD (which I am using less and less now as Ansys don't bother with it anymore) I never got pre-inflation to work well when making unstructured tetra-prism meshes. The only method I could get to work (and I think this is the Ansys recommended way based on their presentations) was using post-inflation as part of the following steps:

1) Conduct all geometry operations, use Build topology, put faces, edges into Parts, make Density Regions, assign element sizes etc. Save file with unique filename.
2) Generate an Octree volume mesh. Delete the volume elements (do not delete the surface elements). Check the surface mesh. Smooth the surface mesh. Save file with unique filename in case I want to restart at this stage.
3) Generate the volume mesh using the Delaunay method with TGlib and Use AF options activated (or maybe use the Advancing Front method). Check and volume mesh. Smooth the volume mesh. Save file with unique filename in case I want to restart at this stage.
4) Generate a few floating inflation layers. Split the inflation layers. Redistribute the layers. Or generate all the inflation layers in one go. This is all trial and error so that the first layer height and the volume transition from the last prism to first tetra are suitable. Smooth with inflation up to a very low quality value and smooth with inflation frozen up to higher quality values. Search for the two invaluable Ansys (from forum member PSYMN https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/an...eneration.html) inflation presentations in this forum.

This does not solve your pre-inflation errors but I've never had Ansys recommend using that.