Problem with a narrow gap
 

I was simulating the flow over some solar panel surfaces to compute the wind pressure on the panel surfaces. There is a narrow gap in between the panels and it is desired to have a good volumetric mesh refinement in this gap. I’ve used the curvature/proximity based refinement but that didn’t really help.

Could someone please suggest me the apt way to do this in ICEM.

Please find attached to this post a pdf that can provide a better illustration to the problem.

Sorry, this was not really clear enough... I understand the model, but not what you mean by "it didn't help". Maybe you could post some images of the mesh that you don't like?

Was your min size small enough to fit several elements between each panel?

Another option would be to set a smaller size on the curves that form the perimeters of each panel.

If you are concerned about mesh count, this sort of model would be ideal for a 12 tet to 1 hex conversion process. This only works for octree tetra and can work even better if you disable the smoothing during octree mesh generation, then do the conversion (under change mesh type) and then smooth... Converting most of your mesh to hexas at a rate of 12 to 1 will save a lot of mesh...

If the model really is this simple, it may be a good candidate for ICEM CFD structured hexa or perhaps for cutcel (in ANSYS Meshing)...