Analyzing the Effect of Mesh Type on a Pipe Flow Problem Using SimScale

The project explains how the type of mesh can influence the results obtained for the mixing of flow in a pipe. The simulation is done on a cloud-based CAE platform called SimScale. The link to the project is here. This project is a part of the SimScale Professional Training on CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics).

Step 1: Creating a Course and a Fine Mesh for the Same Geometry

For this internal flow problem, a Hex-dominant parametric mesh is used. Two types of meshes are created for the problem - a coarse mesh ( which accommodates all the features of the geometry) and a fine mesh ( by increasing the fineness).

Coarse mesh ( Fineness: 1-Very coarse)

Fine mesh ( Fineness : 4-Fine)

Step 2: Running the Same Analysis for Both the Meshes

The same type of analysis is performed for both the meshes (Fluid dynamics: Incompressible). Same boundary conditions and simulation controls are defined for both the meshes.

Step 3: Post-processing the Results of the Two Analysis

The simulation results are post-processed (clip filter is used) to get the contour plot of the velocity flow field.

Step 4: Analyzing and Comparing the Results

As revealed by the results the fines mesh captures specific physics (like flow separation and vorticities) more accurately. Isn't that expected? Well, not always!

This blog was previously posted on Behance.