[jav.kunst]

Dear all,

I am trying to create a mesh for a conjugate heat transfer case and am unable to come up with a proper result. I have followed all the tutorials but I cannot reach an acceptable result.
First, I make it clear that I am using OpenFOAM 1912 and I use SALOME to condition STL files for high triangle density and well conditioning.
Second, the idea of generating this mesh is not to run chtMultiRegion solver on this same mesh, but to understand how snappyHexMesh works with this geometry that is not as basic as the one in the tutorial, but is less complex and therefore faster to analyze than the geometry that if I have to parse with chtMultiRegion solver.

The geometry I'm testing is a simple heat exchanger, please see attached geometry.png
The generation of the mesh is in the same way as the snappyMultiRegionHeater tutorial, I create an STL file in constant / triSurface / heat_exchanger.stl that contains in this case all the surfaces of the 3 media.
a part of the surfaceCheck output in heat_exchanger.stl

Region Size
------ ----
external 257693
inlet_external_fluid 3353
inlet_internal_fluid 3389
outlet_external_fluid 3575
outlet_internal_fluid 3577
shell_to_external_fluid 305629
shell_to_internal_fluid 114501
symmetry_external_fluid 166895
symmetry_internal_fluid 86793
symmetry_shell 213945

Well, already explained how I build the mesh, I explain the problems I have with the snap stage, as you can see in the photos, between some surfaces I get concavities, these concavities can be eliminated by activating ¨strictRegionSnap true; ¨, but when activating this function I get a bad mesh between regions.
I have tried with:
- implicit method, the result is worse
-activating ¨multiRegionFeatureSnap true; ¨, but the result is the same (I can't identify
when this function is useful)
-higher number of iterations in nSmoothPatch, nSmoothInternal, nSolveIter and
nFeatureSnapIter

if necessary I can share the case folder by GoogleDrive, I don't do it here because the stl is big

Please if anyone can help me I would be very grateful, I have a few weeks with this.

Javier

geometry.png

problem.jpg

system.zip

[jav.kunst]

FoamFile
{
    version     2.0;
    format      ascii;
    class       dictionary;
    object      snappyHexMeshDict;
}
// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //

//#includeEtc "caseDicts/mesh/generation/snappyHexMeshDict.cfg"

castellatedMesh true;   
snap            true;
addLayers       false;

geometry
{
    heat_exchanger.stl
    {
        type    triSurfaceMesh;
        name	heat_exchanger;

        regions 
        {
            external                        {name   external;}
            inlet_external_fluid            {name   inlet_external_fluid;}
            inlet_internal_fluid            {name   inlet_internal_fluid;}
            //shell_to_external_fluid         {name   shell_to_external_fluid;}
            //shell_to_internal_fluid         {name   shell_to_internal_fluid;}
            outlet_external_fluid           {name   outlet_external_fluid;}
            outlet_internal_fluid           {name   outlet_internal_fluid;}
            symmetry_external_fluid         {name   symmetry_external_fluid;}
            symmetry_internal_fluid         {name   symmetry_internal_fluid;}
            symmetry_shell                  {name   symmetry_shell;}

        }
    }
}

castellatedMeshControls
{
    maxLocalCells 8000000;
    maxGlobalCells 10000000;
    minRefinementCells 0;
    maxLoadUnbalance 0.1;//0.0;
    nCellsBetweenLevels 2; 
    features
    (
        { file "heat_exchanger.eMesh";  level 3;}	
    );

    refinementSurfaces
    {
        heat_exchanger
        {
            level   (1 3);			

            regions
            {																	
                external                        {level   (2 3); patchInfo	{type patch;}} 		
                inlet_external_fluid            {level   (2 3); patchInfo	{type patch;}} 		
                inlet_internal_fluid            {level   (2 3); patchInfo	{type patch;}} 			
                outlet_external_fluid           {level   (2 3); patchInfo	{type patch;}} 		
                outlet_internal_fluid           {level   (2 3); patchInfo	{type patch;}} 		
                symmetry_external_fluid         {level   (2 3); patchInfo	{type symmetry;}} 	
                symmetry_internal_fluid         {level   (2 3); patchInfo   {type symmetry;}}	                
                symmetry_shell                  {level   (2 3); patchInfo   {type symmetry;}}	
            }
        }
    }

	refinementRegions
    {}

    resolveFeatureAngle 5;																		
    planarAngle 5;																		
    //locationInMesh (0.00001 0.00001 0.00001); // Offset from (0 0 0) to avoid
    locationsInMesh 
    (
        ((0.01001 0.00001 0.00001) internal_fluid)
        ((0.06001 0.00001 0.00001) external_fluid)
        ((0.01001 0.02501 0.00001) shell)
    );
    allowFreeStandingZoneFaces true;
}

snapControls
{
    nSmoothPatch 12;

    nSmoothInternal $ nSmoothPatch;

    tolerance 4.0;

    nSolveIter 100;//30;

    nRelaxIter 5;
    	nFeatureSnapIter 20;
        nFaceSplitInterval 10; 
        implicitFeatureSnap false;
    	explicitFeatureSnap true;
    	multiRegionFeatureSnap false;/
          
    strictRegionSnap    false; 


}

addLayersControls
{

}

meshQualityControls
{
	#include "meshQualityDict"
	nSmoothScale 4;
	errorReduction 0.75;
}
writeFlags
(
    scalarLevels
    layerSets
    layerFields
);

mergeTolerance 1e-6;

// ************************************************************************* //

[Moopie]

I'm having the same problem, did you ever find a solution to this?

[jav.kunst]

Moppie
unfortunately no, i'm not using OF anymore, but if you find the solution it would be great if you share it here, i have some projects that i would like to simulate before doing some tests

[Hr_kules]

I have wasted countless hours with trying to mesh a multi region case in snappy hex mesh. I found it to be extremly frustrating and not really worth it.
Considering this i switched to gmsh. For simple geometries its a nice tool, the more complex the geometry, the more i switch to salome.

Bot meshes can be imported to openFoam.