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Publication Abstract

Towards Automated Mesh Generation: Enhancements to the SolidMesh / AFLR3 Unstructured Grid Generation System

Blades, E. L., Marcum, D., Remotigue, M., & Burgreen, GW (2008). Towards Automated Mesh Generation: Enhancements to the SolidMesh / AFLR3 Unstructured Grid Generation System. Contract Report: Mississippi State University.

Significant enhancements were made to the SolidMesh unstructured grid generation tool to increase the usability of SolidMesh for use in a production type environment and automate the CAD-to-mesh process. The objective of this effort is to reduce the time spent in the CAD-to-mesh process to automatically output computational mesh topologies suitable for both low fidelity (inviscid) and high fidelity (viscous) simulations. SolidMesh is a graphical unstructured mesh generation tool that integrates a solid modeling data structure, a parametric geometry description, and Advancing-Front/Local Reconnection algorithms to generate unstructured surface meshes. SolidMesh provides a graphical user interface (GUI) driven framework for manipulating CAD geometry and generating unstructured grids suitable for high-resolution CFD simulations. Enhancements were made to the SolidMesh software package in order to improve the timeliness of mesh generation and reducing the time it takes to create a topologically valid geometric model. The technology within SolidMesh, AFLR3, CAPRI, and related tools were integrated into one comprehensive system that can use geometry defined as either a solid model typical commercial CAD systems or as a discrete model definition.