Latest Gridgen Release Cuts Hybrid Mesh Sizes by More Than Half

By DE Editors

Pointwise has released the latest update to its Gridgen meshing software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with new tools for size reductions in hybrid meshes.

“Customers love hybrid meshes because they can be generated very quickly using Gridgen’s T-Rex technique, but the resulting meshes can be very large,” said John Steinbrenner, Pointwise’s vice president for research and development. “In the latest Gridgen release,  improvements to the algorithm that combines tetrahedra into prisms produce up to a 57 percent reduction in total cell count relative to the previous version of the software.”

Gridgen’s T-Rex technique extrudes layers of tetrahedra for boundary layer resolution, gradually transitioning to isotropic tets away from the body. An optional post-processing step combines adjacent tetrahedra into pyramid and prism elements in the extrusion layer. Prism recombination was frequently halted in previous versions by mesh quality issues and cell topology restrictions on symmetry planes. By removing many of these limitations in the new Gridgen Version 15.15, final cell counts can be reduced dramatically. Customers benefit because a smaller grid requires less memory, runs faster in the CFD solver and produces results sooner.

“A 27 million cell mesh for a modern, complex fighter aircraft was reduced to 12 million cells, and similar reductions were obtained for the AIAA shock boundary layer interaction benchmark case,” said Steinbrenner.  “Combined with the automation of this technique, these smaller meshes make hybrid meshing very effective for the CFD practitioner.”

For more information, visit Pointwise.

Sources:  Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.