Copying/tessellating solution data
 

All,

I have searched for quite a while for an answer to my question. I'm simulating a domain with very regular, repeated geometry. In order to speed up my grid independence studies, I've broken down my domain into a "unit cell" in order to use the least number of cells possible.

Now that I've found my grid density, I want to apply it to the entire domain and use the results of the mesh convergence as my initial condition. Copying the mesh itself is easy enough in ICEM. However, is there a way to copy my .dat files in a similar way?

I would think it would take some sort of journal file manipulation, but since I can't actually open a .dat file to see what it is, I don't know how to do it. Basically, I want to copy the fluid properties at each point in the domain and paste them a certain delta-x and delta-y.

The reason I'm doing this is because my simple "unit cell" used for the mesh convergence study has essentially symmetric BC's on all 4 sides, but my larger geometry would have actual wall BC's at it's extents.

Thanks

It's been years since I've done it so I don't remember the exact steps. You should try this to see if it works for a simple case before trying to write it in a journal.

You load the case and data in Fluent. Translate your mesh, which has the effect of translating all the data with it. Save this new translated case if needed.

Then you import the original case and append it to the current case. Then merge them (boundaries and zones). Rinse & repeat.

I think you've shown me the way, thank you!

If anyone else is watching this, here's what I found worked:

Do as tran says, translate your mesh the desired distance. Then append your case and data files. This will give you a bunch of matching zones with suffixes added on - wall & wall.1, fluid & fluid.1, etc.

In my case, I needed to merge those zones to ease pre- and post-processing. When merging zones via the GUI, it is best to work your way down the list - fluid zones, interior zones, wall zones, etc. This will eliminate "unable to merge" errors between things that are lower down on the list.

Then, just make sure you turn the inside boundaries into the needed type of interface zones. For me, that was matched interface zones (even though my mesh is mapped and identical on either side of the interface, I needed to specify this manually to actually get flow across this new boundary).

Thanks again!.