1.

SMOOTHING METHOD

1.1 APPLICATION OF SPRING-BASED SMOOTHENING METHOD:-

You can use the spring-based smoothing method to update any cell or face zone whose boundary is
moving or deforming.

For non-tetrahedral cell zones (non-triangular in 2D), the spring-based method can be used when the
following conditions are met:
• The boundary of the cell zone moves predominantly in one direction (that is, no excessive
anisotropic stretching or compression of the cell zone).
• The motion is predominantly normal to the boundary zone.

If these conditions are not met, the resulting cells may have high skewness values, since not all possible
combinations of node pairs in non-tetrahedral cells (or non-triangular in 2D) are idealized as springs.
Polyhedral cells are particularly likely to become highly skewed with spring-based smoothing
(regardless of whether the previous conditions are met), and so the diffusion-based smoothing
method is generally recommended for polyhedra (see Diffusion-Based Smoothing (p. 1081)).

By default, spring-based smoothing is disabled for cell zones that are not entirely composed of either
tetrahedral or triangular cells. This is reflected in the Elements options under Parameters in the Mesh
Method Settings dialog box (Figure 10.14: The Smoothing Tab of the Mesh Method Settings Dialog Box
(3D) (p. 1076)). By default, the Elements are set to Tet in Tet Zones in 3D (or Tri in Tri Zones in 2D). If you
want to use spring-based smoothing on all element types, you can do that by selecting the All option.

If you have mixed element zones and you do not want spring-based smoothing on all element types, you
can enable spring-based smoothing on only the tetrahedral or triangular cells by selecting Tet in Mixed
Zones in 3D (or Tri in Mixed Zones in 2D). Selection of smoothing elements in the Mesh Method Settings
dialog box applies by default to all cell zones that undergo spring-based smoothing. In order to have
more precise control, it is possible to overwrite this global selection on individual dynamic cell zones
(see Deforming Motion (p. 1161)). This gives, for example, the flexibility to suppress smoothing in zones
where dynamic layering (see Dynamic Layering (p. 1093)) is used and allows at the same time smoothing
of non-simplex (that is not tetrahedral or triangular) elements in other zones.
1.2 APPLICATION OF DIFFUSION-BASED SMOOTHING METHOD

Diffusion-based mesh smoothing is an alternative method to spring-based smoothing. It is available

Diffusion-based smoothing is computationally more expensive than spring-based smoothing, but likely
results in better mesh quality (especially for non-tetrahedral / non-triangular cell zones, and for
polyhedral cells in particular) and generally allows for larger boundary deformations before breaking
down.

Similar to spring-based smoothing, diffusion-based mesh smoothing can handle translational boundary
deformations much better than rotational motions.

Diffusion-based smoothing is not compatible with the boundary layer smoothing method or the face
region remeshing method. For more information about these methods, see Boundary Layer Smoothing
Method (p. 1090) and Face Region Remeshing Method (p. 1108).
1.3 APPLICATION OF LINARLY ELASTIC SOLID BASED SMOOTHENING METHOD:-

Mesh smoothing based on the linearly elastic solid model is an alternative method to diffusion-based
and spring-based smoothing. Most of the properties and limitations discussed for diffusion-based
smoothing (Applicability of the Diffusion-Based Smoothing Method (p. 1087)) also apply to the linearly
elastic solid model, particularly the mesh quality degradation for rotational motions. The linearly elastic
solid model is computationally more expensive than diffusion-based smoothing, but for some meshes
and mesh motions preserves the mesh quality better.

The current implementation with constant material properties can be a limitation compared with
diffusion-based smoothing with non-uniform diffusivity. In cases with rotational boundary motion and
sharp corners it may be advantageous to use diffusion-based smoothing with
boundary-distance-dependent-diffusivity.

The option to leave the geometry of deforming face zones unspecified is only available with the linearly
elastic solid smoothing method.

The linearly elastic solid smoothing method supports triangular and quadrilateral elements in 2D and
tetrahedral, hexahedral, wedge, and pyramid cells in 3D. It cannot be applied if the deforming cell
zone contains polyhedral cells or hanging nodes. In such cases diffusion-based smoothing is
recommended.

Linearly elastic solid smoothing is not compatible with the boundary layer smoothing method or the face
region remeshing method. For more information about these methods, see Boundary Layer Smoothing
Method (p. 1090) and Face Region Remeshing Method (p. 1108).
1.a SMOOTHING FROM A REFERENCE POSITION

When the mesh smoothing is based on diffusion or the linearly elastic solid model, you have the option
of specifying that the smoothing uses a reference position. This can be helpful when performing many
cycles of periodic or quasi-periodic motion: when you ensure that the smoothing is always done from
the same reference position, the mesh quality may remain more consistent from cycle to cycle. Note
that no mesh manipulation should be done to the zone undergoing such smoothing.

To enable this option, use the following text command: define → dynamic-mesh → controls →
smoothing-parameters → smooth-from-reference-position?

The reference position is saved the first time you perform smoothing after enabling this option. The
reference position is not saved to the case or data file, so restarting from a case file will imply that a
different reference position is used after restart. This still provides the benefit of consistent quality, but
the resulting meshes might be slightly different from a continuous run. The impact of such slight mesh
changes on the solution results will be small, except for cases with a high degree of mesh dependence;
for such exceptional cases, it is recommended that you evaluate the original mesh to ensure that it is
suitable for the problem.

1.b LAPLACIAN SMOOTHING METHOD

This improved Laplacian smoothing can be enabled on deforming boundaries only (that is, the zone with
triangular elements in 3D and zones with linear elements in 2D)
2. DYNAMIC LAYERING

With the height-based option, the cells are split to create a layer of cells with constant height and a layer
of cells of height . With the ratio-based option the cells are split such that, locally, the ratio of the new
cell heights to old cell heights is exactly everywhere. Figure 10.29: Results of Splitting Layer with the
Height-Based Option (p. 1094) and Figure 10.30: Results of Splitting Layer with the RatioBased Option (p.
1095) show the result of splitting a layer of cells above a valve geometry using the height-based and
ratio-based option

You can use the dynamic layering method to split or merge cells adjacent to any moving boundary
provided the following conditions are met:
• All cells adjacent to the moving face zone are either wedges or hexahedra (quadrilaterals in 2D) even
though the cell zone may contain mixed cell shapes.
• The cell layers must be completely bounded by one-sided face zones, except when sliding interfaces
are used (see Applicability of the Face Region Remeshing Method (p. 1111)).
• Note that you cannot use the dynamic layering method in conjunction with adaption in almost all
cases. For more information on the available adaption methods, see Hanging Node Adaption and
Polyhedral Unstructured Mesh Adaption in the Theory Guide.

If the moving boundary is an internal zone, cells on both sides (possibly with different ideal cell layer
heights) of the internal zone are considered for dynamic layering.

If you want to use dynamic layering on cells adjacent to a moving wall that do not span from boundary
to boundary, you must separate those cells that are involved in the dynamic layering and use the sliding
interfaces capability in ANSYS Fluent to transition from the deforming cells to the adjacent non-
deforming cells (see Figure 10.32: Use of Sliding Interfaces to Transition Between Adjacent Cell Zones
and the Dynamic Layering Cell Zone (p. 1097)). For a moving interior face, the zones must be separated
such that they are either expanding or collapsing on the same side. No one zone can consist of both
expanding and collapsing layers.
3 REMESHING METHODS:-

ANSYS Fluent agglomerates cells that violate the skewness or size criteria and locally remeshes the
agglomerated cells or faces. If the new cells or faces satisfy the skewness criterion, the mesh is locally
updated with the new cells (with the solution interpolated from the old cells). Otherwise, the new cells
are discarded and the old cells are retained.

• The local cell remeshing method only affects triangular and tetrahedral cell types in the mesh (that is,
in mixed cell zones the non-triangular/tetrahedral cells are skipped).

• The local face remeshing method is available in 3D only and can remesh tetrahedral cells and wedge
cells in boundary layer meshes.

• The zone remeshing method replaces all cell types with triangular tetrahedral cells (in 2D and 3D
domains, respectively), and can remesh and produce wedge cells in 3D boundary layer meshes.

• The face region remeshing method is applied to triangular cells in 2D, and tetrahedral cells in 3D. In 3D
domains, the face region remeshing method can also remesh and produce wedge cells in 3D boundary
layer meshes.

• The CutCell zone remeshing method works for all cell types.

• The 2.5D remeshing method only works on hexagonal meshes or wedge cells extruded from triangular
surface elements.