Hello guys.. I am now working on a project to create a input file for StarCD. i am preparing the file in HyperMesh. i wanted to know what are the pre-requisites for importing a volume mesh component into starCD. Does StarCD import Hexa Mesh? Pls Advice..

Regards Joseph.

Hex8 and Penta6. Export as *.nas from hypermesh.

Joseph,

I have some years of experience with Hypermesh, and to my surprise I return from a conference to find that my new employer now has a test license of hypermesh version 8.0.

The results from my tests last week are:

Hypermesh can ...

Make a user controlled block mesh.

Make a prismatic, hexahedral or combined prismatic and hexahedral boundary layer connected to a tetrahedral core via pyramids.

Hypermesh cannot ...

Currently generate polyhedral cells.

Create meshes with anything other than a tetrahedral core.

No STAR-CD trimmed cells; tetrahedrals, pyramids, prisms and bricks only.

Limitations ...

4M cells in 2Gb of memory - I made Hypermesh crash. 4078773 cells according the error message before the application disappeared from my processor.

The surface mesh must be continuous, no gaps, no holes and no hanging nodes between regions.

No checking of user data. I.e. can generate meshes where opposing boundary layers intersect, the tetrahedral core then overlaps both boundary layers as well. I.e. you have three separate sections of mesh all occupying the same space. Warnings are not issued when this happens and the user is left to work it out for themselves.

Select surface components with or without boundary layers; boundary layer parameters identical for all selected surfaces. One size fits all approach.

Hypermesh can get confused and produce nothing because of boundary layers on adjacent normal surfaces. I made it do this with the Hypermesh CFD meshing tutorial by changing the default parameters on my first attempt.

As a STAR-CCM+ user, Hypermesh is of no benefit to my work. However, if you already have a certain skill level with Hypermesh and you are new to to the STAR-CD environment, then Hypermesh for block meshing definitely has the advantage over proSTAR meshing for ease of use.

Finally, any reason why you cannot use STAR-CCM+ instead?

Regards Peter

I have found HM to be very good at selecting the surfaces I want to included in my simulations and cleaning up anything that need some attention. In addition, it's good at building simple 'add-on' geometry; extended inlets and outlets. It also has a pretty good surface mesher; export .nas file and import into either STAR-Cd or CCM+. Lately, I've exported the selected and cleaned up surfaces back out as iges and imported that into Prosurf. I've had some decent success with that approach. I do not volume mesh with HM.