[boffin5]

Several years ago, I took it upon myself to learn CFD. Doing this in isolation has been an enormous challenge,
but as I love aerodynamics, it has been stimulating. I would say that the biggest mountain to climb has been
generating acceptable meshes.

I start with Solidworks, in which I have invested substantially, to create geometry. My interest is in flow
over aircraft and car bodies, hence the shapes can be complex. OpenFoam itself can't really deal with these
kinds of meshes, so I have been using Salome, which is freeware. Salome in itself has been a challenge;
starting with files imported from the Cad system, to create a final mesh which closes without errors, is
difficult and can take an inordinate amount of time.

But Salome is only the first hoop to jump through; the next step is to import the mesh into OpenFoam, also freeware, where more often
than not, there are show stopper issues arising from mesh problems. Then, I cycle back into Salome and try
again. It is only with an enormous sigh of relief, when after a few cycles, that I can get an OpenFoam case to run successfully. I ask myself,
how can businesses that require short cycle times, accomplish this without such struggles?

Of course the biggest factor is the skill of the analyst, and I fully admit that in this huge field of CFD, I am a novice.
But I also am compelled ask myself, if I had better tools, would it be easier? As an independent, I am sensitive to cost,
and know that commercially available CFD code is out of my reach. But, perhaps there are possibilities with meshing software.
So I am asking the community for suggestions: given the above scenario, are there some options for meshing software, that might be
affordable? I could, and have, looked into this, but I would like to hear from people who have been there. Please let me know if you have any ideas.

[GerhardHolzinger]

Originally Posted by boffin5

I ask myself,
how can businesses that require short cycle times, accomplish this without such struggles.

If a big business has the need to run simulations on many minor variations of a basic design, they create a parametrized CAD model for the geometry and ideally an automated meshing workflow. Here one is safe to assume that commercial or even tailor-made commercial software is at play.

Such an approach would mean a huge upfront effort to tackle the geometry/meshing problem; but subsequent parameter-studies then need very little work for creating the mesh.

The more time and effort you invest in your geometry and mesh generation, the easier it is to do simulation cycles, e.g. parameter studies or adjusting wall-resolution to optimize y+.


Sadly, there's no perfect solution that is powerful, easy to use and available for free. You might be able to pick two though.



I find the meshing tools that come with OpenFOAM, as well as Salome and cfMesh quite useful. Since they are available as open source, they are the perfect choice for cost-sensitive independents.

[boffin5]

Thank you Gerhard,

I ran across a meshing tool called Ennova, and it looked like the answer to my
problems, so I inquired into the company about costs. They replied, saying a license was more than 10k $ per year. Okay, nein!